Abstract
Molten Salt Reactor designs require robust multiphysics modelling capabilities to further the development of this next generation technology. Due to the unique liquid fuel design, traditional reactor physics analysis codes do not capture all of the important physics of these reactors. This work builds upon a general species transport model implemented into the multiphysics core simulator suite VERA-CS, by adding source and sink models for non-soluble fission products, specifically the noble metals. Noble metal fission products are born in the fuel-salt, but do not form stable fluorides, and instead plate out on various surfaces in the reactor fuel loop. A concentration gradient diffusion-convection based mass transfer model is implemented into the general species transport model within CTF-the subchannel thermal hydraulics code in VERA-CS-and verified. Two noble metal decay chains are analyzed, and their steady state bulk and surface concentrations are calculated for a simple flow loop in CTF that is representative of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE). Non-soluble species 99Mo to 99Tc captures wall plate out of decaying species, and non-soluble 135Te to soluble 135I and gaseous 135Xe captures wall loss of decaying species. Results are compared with MSRE data and the possible multiphysics effects of this phenomena are identified. Future work to enhance the robustness of the physical model and couple it with neutronics to evaluate these effects of Noble Metal mass transport is discussed.
