Boussier and three coauthors reported in 2012 that the MSR is distinguished by its core in which the fuel is dissolved in molten fluoride salt. The technology was first studied more than 50 years ago. Modern interest is on fast reactor concepts as a long term alternative to solid-fueled fast neutrons reactors. The onsite fuel reprocessing unit using pyrochemistry allows breeding plutonium or uranium-233 from thorium. R&D progresses toward resolving feasibility issues and assessing safety and performance of the design concepts.
Key feasibility issues focus on a dedicated safety approach and the development of salt redox potential measurement and control tools in order to limit corrosion rate of structural materials. Further work on the batch-wise online salt processing is required. Much work is needed on molten salt technology and related equipment.
The authors concluded that Since 2005, R&D on MSR has been focused on fast spectrum concepts (MSFR) which have been recognized as long term alternatives to solid fuelled fast neutron reactors with attractive features (very negative feedback coefficients, smaller fissile inventory, easy in-service
inspection, simplified fuel cycle…). MSFR designs are available for breeding and for minor actinide burning. They are robust reference configurations (with significant improvement compared to MSBR), allowing to concentrate on specific R&D issues.
Although the European and US interests were focused on different baseline concepts (MSFR MOSART and FHR), large commonalities in basic R&D areas (liquid salt technology, materials) exist and the Generation IV framework is useful to optimize the R&D effort. A network on MSR R&D has been active in Europe from 2001 with financial support by EURATOM. Partners of the MSR PSSC are involved in the Euratom-funded EVOL (Evaluation and Viability of Liquid Fuel Fast Reactor Systems) project and ISTC#1606 and #3749 projects.
ISTC has provided another efficient way of collaboration between Russian research organizations, European partners and non-European partners (USA, Japan, Korea, Canada). A complementary ROSATOM program named MARS (Minor Actinides Recycling in Molten Salt) project between Russian researches organizations is carried out in parallel to Euratom EVOL project.
The common objective is to propose a conceptual design of MSFR by 2013 as the best system configuration – resulting from physical, chemical and material studies – for the reactor core, the reprocessing unit and wastes conditioning. It is intended to deepen the demonstration that the MSFR system can satisfy the goals of Generation IV in terms of sustainability (Th breeder), non proliferation (integrated fuel cycle, multi-recycling of actinides), resource savings (closed Th/U fuel cycle, no uranium enrichment), safety (no reactivity reserve, strongly negative feedback coefficient) and waste management (actinide burner).
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