October 6, 2015 - Oak Ridge National Laboratory is marking the 50th anniversary of the startup of its Molten Salt Reactor Experiment this month. A workshop on molten salt reactor technologies Oct. 15-16 at ORNL will bring together government representatives, U.S. and international researchers, regulators, utilities and reactor design firms for technical discussions and a reception honoring the pioneers of MSR technology. The MSRE, designed to assess the viability of liquid fuel reactor technologies for use in commercial power generation, operated from January 1965 through December 1969, logging more than 13,000 hours at full power during its four-year run. The MSRE was designated a nuclear historic landmark in 1994. “Molten salt technology has experienced a revival in interest both domestically and internationally, and the experiment itself remains unique in reactor development history,” said ORNL’s David Holcomb.
