The Stable Salt Reactor—A Radically Simpler Option for Use of Molten Salt Fuel

Abstract

All reactor designs over the past 50 years designed to use molten salt fuel have shared a common misconception that such fuel must be actively pumped between a reaction chamber and a heat exchanger. This design philosophy originated with the Aircraft Reactor experiment and the Molten Salt Reactor experiment and has not been challenged since. Application of modern tools of computational fluid dynamics to the question shows that in fact the use of molten salt fuel in fuel tubes very similar to those used in conventional solid-fueled reactors is entirely practical and makes possible a radically simpler design of molten salt-fueled reactor, the Stable Salt Reactor.