Annals of Nuclear Energy 64 (2014) 398–407

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Annals of Nuclear Energy

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Design of a passive residual heat removal system for the FUJI-233Um

molten salt reactor system
T. Ishiguro 1, W.F.G. van Rooijen ⇑, Y. Shimazu, H. Mochizuki
Research Institute of Nuclear Engineering, University of Fukui, Kannawa-cho 1-2-4, Tsuruga-shi, Fukui-ken T914-0055, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper discusses the design and analysis of a passive decay heat removal system for a Molten Salt
Received 25 January 2013 Reactor (MSR) of 450 MWth. Following the disaster at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power station, it is clear
Accepted 5 August 2013 that the public will demand improved safety performance if nuclear power is to be accepted as a sustain-
Available online 8 October 2013
able source of CO2-free energy. In this scope, thorium-based MSRs have very promising properties in the
area of passive safety, resource availability and proliferation resistance. Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) sys-
Keywords: tems can be equipped with an emergency salt drain tank. Under any severe accident, all the fuel salt
Molten salt reactor
can be drained by gravity into the drain tank, thus, the primary system can be safely emptied of fissile
Station black out
Decay heat removal
materials and fission products. The ultimate safety can be assured by the integrity of the fuel salt in
Passive safety the drain tank or in other words, the capability of residual heat removal from the fuel salt in the drain
tank. From this point of view, we investigated the feasibility of a passive residual heat removal system
for the drain tank of an MSR (FUJI-233Um of 450 MWth). We concluded that a system comprising a large
drain tank and 60, large-diameter coolant tubes can withstand the thermal shock due to the hot fuel salt,
and therefore we conclude that system is feasible.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction (Gen IV International Forum, 2009; Renault et al., 2005; Nagy

After the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear
Power Plant, the majority of the Japanese public is very sensitive
about nuclear power. However, the authors believe that nuclear
energy with higher safety is still indispensable until alternative en-
ergy sources with stability, sustainability and safety are realized.
Thus, the authors are interested in thorium based molten salt reac-
tors with a high potential of safety, resources sustainability and
proliferation resistance.
Molten-Salt Breeder Reactors (MSBR) operating on the Th–U233
cycle have been studied at ORNL until the beginning of the 1970s
(Robertson, 1971). MSBR is a graphite-moderated thermal breeder
reactor. In an MSBR, the fuel is dissolved in a mixture of fluoride
salts, which also act as heat transport fluid. Compared with
solid-fuel reactors, MSBR systems have lower fissile inventories,
and are insensitive to fuel radiation damage. Because of these
and other characteristics, MSBRs have unique capabilities. The
concept has been re-evaluated as one of the six candidates of
Generation IV reactor systems, especially in Europe and Russia
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 770 25 0143; fax: +81 770 25 0100.
E-mail addresses: rooijen@u-fukui.ac.jp (W.F.G. van Rooijen), shimazu@
u-fukui.ac.jp (Y. Shimazu), mochizki@u-fukui.ac.jp (H. Mochizuki).
URL: http://www.rine.u-fukui.ac.jp/ (W.F.G. van Rooijen).
1
Present address: K.K. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Japan.
et al., 2011).
For maintenance requirements Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) sys-
tems are in practice equipped with a salt drain tank in a similar
way as sodium-cooled systems are equipped with sodium drain
circuits. Intentional drains are usually associated with mainte-
nance operations, such as reactor core graphite replacement, ser-
vicing pumps, and heat exchangers. One may choose to use the
drain tank as an emergency system, or one may decide to add a
special ‘‘emergency drain tank’’. In case of a severe accident, all
the fuel salt can be drained by gravity into the drain tank, thus,
the primary system can be safely emptied of fissile materials and
fission products. The ultimate safety can be assured by the integ-
rity of the fuel salt in the drain tank. This implies that the drain
tank is required to be sufficiently resistant to damage due to exter-
nal events (earthquake, tsunami, etc.), as well as being able to
maintain the capability of residual heat removal from the fuel salt
in the drain tank. From this point of view, we investigated the fea-
sibility of a passive residual heat removal system for the Fuji-
233Um, a 450 MWth MSR (International Thorium Molten-Salt
Institute, 2007).
At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), two fluid molten
salt reactors were built, the Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE,
1958), and it successor, the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE,
1965–1969 Marcus, 2010). Especially from MSRE a lot of relevant
data was obtained. In the study of ORNL (Robertson, 1971), a qual-
itative comparison of the coolants has been investigated for the

0306-4549/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2013.08.037
 T. Ishiguro et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 64 (2014) 398–407
Table 1
Evaluation of salt-type coolants and water-steam for primary drain tank cooling system. Reproduced from Robertson, 1971. SI units added for convenience. Indicated prices are
for 1971, i.e. not adjusted for inflation. Note the following: if a coolant with high melting point is used (NaBF4–NaF, 7LiF–BeF2), the temperature of the cooling circuit is high at the
time of draining because the coolant should be maintained in the liquid state at all times. The high temperature of the coolant circuit reduces thermal shock, but at the same time
it increases the probability that the coolant freezes.
Coolant Desirable features
NaBF4–NaF  Inexpensive ($70/ft3, $2100 m3)
 High melting point means reduced thermal shock on drain
tank
 Relatively low viscosity
7
LiF–BeF2  No processing of fuel salt is required in event of leak
 Least thermal shock on drain system
 Extensive experience with this coolant in MSRE
 Hastelloy N may not be required in coolant circuit
 No volume change on freezing
KNO3–NaNO2–NaNO3  Inexpensive
 Carbon steel can be used up to 850 °F (730 K); stainless
steel for higher temperatures
 Low melting point
Water-steam  Has least danger of freezing
 Lowest cost
 Used in MSRE drain tank
 Relatively easy to get natural circulation
drain tank heat removal system as shown in Table 1. Fused salts,
NaK and steam-water were considered to be most worthy of fur-
ther consideration.
Although water appeared to be a very attractive coolant, pro-
vided a double barrier is used in the drain tank cooling tubes to
avoid thermal shock following a salt drain and to give better assur-
ance that water cannot reach the fuel salt, calculations showed that
it would be difficult to fit the required number of tubes into the
drain tank head. A compromise was therefore reached which em-
ploys natural circulation of a 7LiF–BeF2 salt mixture through the
drain tank tubes and then cooling of the salt by radiative heat
transfer to boiling water.
But the authors reconsidered water as a coolant, and confirmed
it is feasible, if the design of the drain tank and piping is adequately
adapted. The passive heat removal system is based on water as a
coolant with natural circulation and heat is released into the atmo-
sphere with an air cooler. We evaluated the capability of such a
system as described in the following sections: Section 2 is explana-
tion of the system and calculation conditions for the feasibility
evaluation. In Section 3 calculation results are described. In Sec-
tion 4 several poignants of our design are discussed, and in Sec-
tion 5 the conclusions of this study are summarized.
2. Design method and boundary conditions
2.1. Specification of FUJI-233Um
General information and the technical features of the MSR FUJI-
233Um are as follows: FUJI-233Um is substantially designed for
Th-233U fuel cycle. The general configuration of FUJI is shown in
Fig. 1. The core consists of directly immersed hexagonal graphite
blocks, which have a center channel for fuel flow and a thin in-
ter-block gap on each flat side through which fuel salt passes, see
Fig. 2. The standard fuel salt is 7LiF–BeF2–ThF4–UF4, of which the
melting point is about 730 K. The fuel salt flows upward through
the core and is heated up to about 970 K. A centrifugal pump trans-
fers the outlet fuel salt to a heat exchanger, where the heat is trans-
ferred to a secondary coolant salt of NaBF4–NaF, which transports
the heat to a super critical steam generation system and leads to an
overall thermal efficiency of more than 44% (International Thorium
Molten-Salt Institute, 2007). A summary of principal data for FUJI-
233Um is given in Table 2. We studied the feasibility of a decay
399
Undesirable features
 Reactor must be shutdown if coolant gets into fuel salt, and
the fuel must be processed
 High melting point makes freezing in stack more likely
 Hastelloy N would be required in coolant circuit
 Very expensive ($1500/ft3, $45000 m3)
 High melting point
 High viscosity
 Of doubtful stability at high temperatures and in radiation
field
 Salt processing on leak may be required
 Requires double barrier tubes (e.g., bayonet)
 Relatively large number of tubes required
heat removal system for the drain tank based on passive cooling
(see Fig. 1).
2.2. Basic concept of cooling system
In this study, we assume that the plant goes into a station black
out condition. Since there is no electric power source, the desired
decay heat removal system must be based on natural circulation.
The system should not require any operator actions. There are no
pump(s) in the coolant loop or blower(s) in the air cooler. The cool-
ing system consists of the drain tank, a closed water circuit and an
air cooler. Many tubes pass through the drain tank for cooling. The
tubes from the tank are collected in a manifold and connected to a
large-diameter pipe. This pipe goes to the air cooler, where the
cooling water is distributed over many small tubes. At the outlet
of the air cooled the cooling water is collected again into one big
pipe and then circulates back to the drain tank.
The coolant takes heat from the fuel in the drain tank, and the
heat is emitted into the atmosphere through the air cooler as
shown in Fig. 3. The drain tank is assumed to be insulated from
atmosphere. The present study is feasibility analysis. The implica-
tions of the passive system with respect to (levels of) containment
should be carefully analyzed in a later stage (the proposed design
may provide an easy pathway for fission product release if the
coolant tubing is damaged). The initial conditions of temperature
and pressure of the water coolant are atmospheric conditions.
2.3. Calculation code, boundary conditions
After the reactor is scrammed, the fuel temperature increases
due to the presence of decay heat and the loss of cooling capability.
The freeze valves melt, and fuel salt drains into the tank by gravity.
We evaluated the passive heat removal capability of the above
mentioned system with the calculation code NETFLOW++ (Moc-
hizuki, 2010). NETFLOW++ is a thermal–hydraulic code which is
developed at the University of Fukui mainly for analyses of the pro-
totype FBR MONJU. It is a one-dimensional thermal hydraulic net-
work code, and can simulate the transients of various types of
nuclear reactors and facilities consisting of various volumes con-
nected by pipes.
Our thermal–hydraulic model will be explained later. For now,
the most important point is that the model basically consists of
400 T. Ishiguro et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 64 (2014) 398–407

Control Primary
Rod Secondary
Pump
454 Pump

Reactor
704

633
Graphite
NaBF4-NaF
Heat
Exchanger
633 Steam
Generator
Freeze 7LiF-BeF
2-ThF4-UF4
Valve
633

Drain
Tank Turbine &
Generator

Fig. 1. General configuration of FUJI-233Um (International Thorium Molten-Salt Institute, 2007).

two concentric cylindrical tubes. The coolant flows in the inner

Cut Model of tube, while the fuel salt is present in the annular region between
Reactor FUJI Core
Vessel the tubes. NETFLOW++ can calculate heat transfer in solid fuel.
However, in the liquid fuel salt in our case, natural convection will
Reflector Control Rod develop in the annular space due to temperature differences in the
fuel salt (the fuel salt will be cooler near the cooling tubes). The
Outlet natural convection will have the effect to ‘‘even out’’ the tempera-
ture differences in the fuel salt. If there were no cooling at all, nat-
Core ural convection would make the temperatures equal troughout the
system. Since the system is cooled, there will be a small tempera-
Graphite ture difference in the fuel salt region. To simulate this situation, we
Moderator Inlet set the heat conductivity to 3000 W/m/K for the fuel salt, so that
we obtain a temperature difference as small as around 10 K in
Diameter×Height
6.8m×2.9m the fuel salt, which was deemed to be a reasonable number for
our feasibility study.
Fig. 2. Cut model of the FUJI core.

Table 2
Main characteristics of FUJI-233Um. Reproduced from International Thorium Molten-Salt Institute, 2007.

Characteristic Value
Major design characteristic
Installed capacity (thermal) 450 MWth
Installed capacity (electric) 200 MW
Mode of operation Base load and/or load following
Load factor (target) 90% for base load operation
Availability 90%
Type of fuel Molten fluoride salt: LiF–BeF2–ThF4–UF4
Fuel enrichment Initial salt composition: 71.75–16-12–0.25 mol.%; with 2 wt.% of fissile material in heavy metal
Type of coolant Molten fluoride salt: LiF–BeF2–ThF4–UF4
Type of moderator/reflector Graphite
Type of structural material Modified Hastelloy N; composition: Ni (base), Mo (11–13), Cr (6–8), Nb (1–2), Si (0–1) (wt.%)
Core geometry Cylindrical
Core characteristic dimensions/power density  Core-I: radius 2.2 m, graphite fraction 64 vol.%
 Core-II: outer radius 2.8 m, graphite fraction 71 vol.%
 Core-III: outer radius 3.0 m, graphite fraction 76 vol.%
 Core height: 2.1 m
 Power density in the core: 7.3 kW/l
Vessel type Closed; tank type
Vessel characteristic dimensions  Inner diameter: 6.84 m
 Height: 2.94 m
 Wall thickness: 5.0 cm
Number of circuits Three, including an intermediate molten salt heat transport system
Thermal–hydraulic characteristics
Core flow rate 0.711 m3/s (fuel salt volume within vessel = 21.1 m3, total = 26.4 m3)
 T. Ishiguro et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 64 (2014) 398–407 401

Table 3
Nomenclature and recommended values from Specialist Research Committee on
Nuclear Reactor Decay Heat Standards, 1989 for the calculation of the decay heat due
to actinide decay. The capture and fission rates have been determined based on
Air cooler Robertson, 1971 and International Thorium Molten-Salt Institute, 2007. The capture
rate C0 is the capture rate in Th-232.

Decay constants
Reactor vessel k1 (Th-233) 5.180  104 s1
k2 (Pa-233) 2.917  107 s1
Emitted energy
E1 (Th-233) 0.448 MeV
(b 91.8%, c 8.2%)
E2 (Pa-233) 0.281 MeV
Freeze (b 27.4%, c 72.6%)
Valve
Capture rate
C0 7  1012 s1 cm1
Fission rate
Drain tank
F 6  1012 s1 cm1

Water C0  
P1 ðT; tÞ ¼ E1 1  ek1 T ek1 t ð2Þ
F
Fig. 3. Schematic model of the passive cooling system for the drain tank. C0 1      
P2 ðT; tÞ ¼ E2 k1 1  ek2 T ek2 t  k2 1  ek1 T ek1 t ð3Þ
F k1  k2
In the limit that T ? 1, one can simplify these equations to
Under conditions of natural circulation, one is typically dealing
find:
with laminar flow. For the present study, we performed calcula-
tions with an effective Nusselt number of Nu = 4.00; this is a com-
promise between the value of Nu = 3.66, which is valid for fully C0
developed laminar flow and constant wall temperature, and P1 ð1; tÞ ¼ E1 ek1 t ð4Þ
F
Nu = 4.346, which is valid for fully developed laminar flow and
C0 1  k2 t 
constant heat flux (Todreas and Kazimi, 1990). The heat transfer P2 ð1; tÞ ¼ E2 k1 e  k2 ek1 t ð5Þ
F k1  k2
coefficient is determined from:
The relative decay heat power as a fraction of full power Pd/P0
Nuk
h¼ ð1Þ can be calculated from the next equation
De
with k the conductivity and De the typical dimension of the system. Pd P FP þ P1 þ P2
The heat conductivity of the molten salt is 1.19 W/m/K at 705 °C ¼ ð6Þ
P0 Qf
(Robertson, 1971). De is given by the geometry of the cooling tubes
in the tank model.
Decay heat is the energy source in the drain tank. The decay where Qf is the effective energy released per fission of U-233
heat model we used considers that the reactor has been operated (191.25 MeV, see the report of the Specialist Research Committee
for an infinitely long period at constant power (full power). Fission on Nuclear Reactor Decay Heat Standards, 1989). The decay heat
product nuclei are generally not stable. When they decay, emitting fraction (including effects of Th-233 and Pa-233 decay) is shown
a b-ray, decay heat is generated. FUJI-233Um operates on the U- in Fig. 4.
233 cycle. The decay heat parameters for U-233 are taken from
the report of the Specialist Research Committee on Nuclear Reactor
Decay of U233 as a fraction of nominal power
Decay Heat Standards, 1989. It should be noted that the FUJI-
233Um is equipped with a gas processing unit, which takes care 5
of volatile fission products during operation. The effect will be to
4.5
reduce the actual decay heat source in the fuel salt, so that our cal-
Decay heat fraction [%]

culations are conservative as far as the decay heat source is 4

concerned.
3.5
The nuclei of structural materials in the core may capture neu-
trons, and turn into radioactive nuclei (neutron activation). This 3
neutron activation effect should be taken into account for the over-
2.5
all decay heat. However, in an MSR, only the fuel salt is discharged
into the drain tank, and therefore we do not take into account the 2
activation of structural materials.
1.5
The model to calculate the decay heat due to actinide decay is
taken from the report of the Specialist Research Committee on Nu- 1
clear Reactor Decay Heat Standards, 1989. Actinide decay heat
mainly consists of the decay of Th-233 (product of neutron capture 0.5
in Th-232) and the daughter isotope Pa-233. In the following, indi- 10 −5 10 −4 10 −3 10 −2 10 −1 10 0 101
ces 1 and 2 indicate Th-233 and Pa-233, respectively. Actinide de- Time [days]
cay heat P1,2 (in MeV/fission) after irradiation period of length T
can be calculated as follows (symbols explained in Table 3): Fig. 4. Decay heat as a fraction of the reactor power after shutdown.
402 T. Ishiguro et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 64 (2014) 398–407

3. Outcome of the design process To Air Cooler

To Air Cooler
Initial conditions for the evaluation of the cooling system are gi-
ven in Table 4. In this calculation, not the entire system is consid-
ered, but a part of the system is calculated. Assuming the system
has Nt cooling tubes in the drain tank, the model is based on 1 cool-
ing tube, i.e. on 1/Nt of the total drain tank volume, as shown in Nt
Fig. 5. The model essentially has two concentric cylinders. The
coolant (water) flows in the inner tube and the fuel salt is present
in the outer tube. The outer radius of the fuel salt tube is deter- Drain Tank
mined on the condition that the total volume of the model is 1/
Nt of that of the whole system. In the NETFLOW++ model, the tubes
are meshed along the direction of coolant flow, where the salt re-
gion is modeled as a solid fuel with several radial meshes. Similar
to the tank region, the number of air cooling tubes is also scaled by
a factor of 1/Nt. From Air Cooler
From Air Cooler
The calculation starts after the fuel salt is drained into the tank.
As this study is a feasibility study, the melting point of the freeze Fig. 5. Calculational model (left) and the whole system (right).
valve and the time required to drain the fuel salt into the tank
are not considered explicitly. It is realized that it will take some
time for the freeze seal to melt. This period of delay will cause
the temperature of the fuel salt to increase, therefore calculations
were done with two values of the salt temperature: 734 °C, which
is 100 °C above the nominal temperature and 834 °C (200 °C above
nominal). Power production due to fission caused by delayed neu-
trons is not taken into account. The delayed neutrons decay with a
time scale of 80 s, and the source of fission power quickly becomes
negligible compared to the decay heat source. Design limitations
for the cooling systems are:

1. Maximum water temperature is below the boiling point.

2. Maximum fuel temperature is below the boiling point of the
fuel: 1525 °C (Robertson, 1971).
3. Maximum structural material temperature is 700 °C. This value
is decided by core outlet fuel salt temperature at rated power. Fig. 6. (a) Explanation of symbols regarding the fins of the heat transfer tubes in the
air cooler. (b) Schematic view of the cooling tubes in the air cooler.
In the design calculations, we surveyed sensitivities of the
following parameters (see Fig. 6 for the meaning of these
parameters).

 Geometry of coolant tubes Dc.

 Volume of coolant.
 Number of air cooling tubes N. Air cooler
 Fin outer diameter DFIN.
 Thickness of fin TFIN.
 Height of air cooler duct H.
 Representative length of air duct L.
 Geometry of drain tank. h
The elevation between the air cooler and the drain tank (h in
Fig. 7) is an important factor. It affects the driving force for natural
circulation in the coolant. In this study, we selected the difference Drain
of elevation between core and intermediate heat exchanger to be tank
the same as in the prototype FBR MONJU, h = 8.6 m.
As an example of our design process we consider the design of
the fins for the air cooling system, because the overall performance
of the system depends on the air cooler performance. We investi- Fig. 7. Image of difference of elevation between drain tank and air cooler.

gated the effect of the shape of the fins. The diameter of the fins
and the representative length of the air cooler duct are varied.
Table 4 The thickness of air cooler tubes is constant. In this case, the diam-
Initial conditions for water cooling loop. eter of air cooler tubes is 6.8 cm. From our survey, we find that the
maximum temperature saturates: if the DFIN is larger than 0.15 m,
Water temperature 40 °C
Fuel salt temperature 734, 834 °C there is no improvement in the water temperature. Many tubes
Atmosphere temperature 40 °C should be set in air cooler, but tubes with large fins cannot be
Flow rate 0 kg/s set in an air cooler duct. We determined a compromise between
Pressure 1013 Pa the size of the fins and the number of tubes in the air cooler duct.
 T. Ishiguro et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 64 (2014) 398–407 403

Table 5 To transfer the heat uniformly, 60 tubes are set in the drain
An example of the design specification. tank. The pipe length is decided as a result of arrangement. The
Summary of system drain tank, which is located underground, and the air cooler on
Tank volume 26.4 m3 the ground are connected by a pipe. A long pipe is needed. The
Number of tanks 1 coolant volume is a main factor influencing the maximum water
Coolant volume 27.34 m3
Number of tubes in tank 60
temperature. Too much coolant makes the fuel solidify early. We
Fuel mass in tank 89150 kg surveyed an optimum coolant volume by varying diameter of the
Length of connecting piping 33.2 m connecting pipe. We considered one safety issue: the volume of
Diameter of pipes 0.28 m water should be maximized to retain as much cooling as possible
Diameter of tubes in tank 0.30 m
in case of a leak in the water system. However, a make-up tank
Thickness of tubes in tank 1 cm
Tank height 4.0 m may be added to the system for this situation.
A result calculated with the above conditions is shown in Fig. 8.
Summary of air cooler
Number of tubes 360 The fuel melting point is about 500 °C, therefore we can keep fuel
liquid over a period of about 10 days.
R-type fin tubes
Tube length 10 m When the fuel salt solidifies (phase change), the latent heat has
Tube outer diameter 5.08 m to be considered. In this calculation, we have not taken this into ac-
Outer diameter of fins 11 cm count. In fact, we consider that a period of 10 days would be suffi-
Thickness of fins 2 mm cient to restore power to the plant, and our calculations only cover
Number of fins 100/m
Height of air cooler duct 15 m
the first 10 days of the accident.

4. Design evaluation

1400 Now that the design point has been established, several points
Initial temperature 734 C
Initial temperature 834 C of concern need to be addressed. In this section, the following is
Fuel temp. [C]

1200 discussed:

1000  Discussion of the wall temperature of the coolant tubes and the
potential for coolant boiling.
800
 Explanation of the wall temperutare of the coolant tubes.
 Criticality in the fuel tank.
600
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11  Thermal stress on the coolant tubes.
Time [days]
4.1. Coolant boiling
200 Tube wall (734 C)
In the calculation result, the tank wall temperature is above the
Temperature [C]

Tube wall (834 C)

150
100
50
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Fig. 8. Time-dependence for temperatures of example design. For the calculations
with an initial temperature of 834 °C the calculated temperatures are lower. This is
because in this model the volume of cooling water is larger than in the case of
734 °C initial temperature.
We determined the optimal shape of the fins. An example of design
specification found based on this survey is shown in Table 5.
This design example is selected with the aim to keep the fuel
temperature above the melting point as long as possible. This is de-
sired for two reasons: first, the natural circulation in the fuel will
have a big influence on the heat transfer from the salt to the cool-
ant. To maintain the natural convection, a large portion of the fuel
salt should remain the liquid phase. A second point is the follow-
ing: suppose a thick crust of solidified fuel forms on the coolant
tubes. Heat transfer will decrease, which will decrease the driving
force for natural circulation in the coolant. After a while, the tem-
perature of the salt will increase and all or part of the crust will
melt. This will increase the heat transfer again. It is expected that
the overall cooling performance will be reduced in such a ‘‘on/off’’
system. Heat exchange should be such that the temperature of the
fuel salt in the fuel drain tank remains at an acceptable level, the
cooling water does not reach boiling point, and the fuel salt should
remain liquid for as long as possible.
Tank outlet (734 C) boiling point of water. The maximum drain tank wall temperature
Tank outlet (834 C)
is 175 °C. This implies that the water will start to boil at the surface
of the cooling tubes. However, since the bulk of the fluid is still be-
low the saturation temperature, the bubbles will collapse and no
bulk boiling will occur. Because the cooling loop is sealed, the pres-
sure will increase as the water temperature increases. The higher
8 9 10 11 water pressure raises the boiling point of the water. A spring-
loaded valve is used to limit the pressure in the water loop. The
pressurization of the water loop increases the boiling point of the
water. Obviously, the pressurization of the system implies the risk
of tube rupture. Therefore, the design pressure should be chosen as
low as possible while maintaining sufficient pressurization to
avoid bulk boiling in the water loop.
Since the example design is considered in atmospheric condi-
tions, the heat flux is calculated by NETFLOW++ assuming the boil-
ing regime to be film-boiling heat transfer. To make sure that the
assumption of film-boiling does not result in an overestimation
of the heat transfer, a calculation was done with a high pressure
in the cooling system. The pressure was chosen to be 2.4 MPa,
which is above the saturation pressure at 220 °C. In other words,
with this pressure no boiling occurs anywhere in the water circuit.
A comparison of the results shows that the results are almost iden-
tical. In other words, the assumption of atmospheric pressure in
the calculations does not lead to different results as would be
found if the water circuit assumed to be pressurized.
4.2. Comments on the tube wall temperature
In the previous section, one surprising result was found: even if
the fuel salt is quite hot, the tubes of the cooling circuit remain at a
404 T. Ishiguro et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 64 (2014) 398–407

Fig. 9. Schematic of the MELT-II experimental apparatus. Reproduced from Mochizuki, 1996.

relatively low temperature. To check whether this result is an
(incorrect) artifact of the NETFLOW++ code, we compared the cal-
culation results with experimental data from Mochizuki, 1996. In
Mochizuki, 1996 the heat transfer between molten material and
pressure tubes is investigated. In Mochizuki, 1996 the MELT-II
experimental apparatus was used to perform experiments using
molten materials. It used molten NaCl (1300 K), heated by induc-
tion heating, poured into a test section, in which pressure tubes
cooled by water were present. The general view is shown in Fig. 9.
The melt is introduced from a nozzle of 20 mm inside diameter.
The pressure tubes into which the coolant flows are made of
SUS304, with 149.8 mm inside diameter, 6.2 mm thickness, and a
length of 294 mm. (see the label "Pressure tube SUS304" in Fig. 9
for the location of the pressure tube wall). All components are
housed in a copper block, the outside dimension of which is
250 mm. On the outside of the block is a cooling coil to cool the block
with water. Three thermocouples are provided in the pressure tube:
at the center of the tube, and at 30 mm intervals from the center of
 T. Ishiguro et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 64 (2014) 398–407 405

Fig. 10. Temperature history of NaCl, pressure tube and copper block in NaCl experiment. Reproduced from Mochizuki, 1996.

Stress distribution in cooling pipe wall

120
sigma_radial
100 sigma_theta
sigma_z
80

60

Stress [MPa]
40

20

−20

−40

−60

Fig. 11. Sub-criticality calculation model. −80

0.15 0.152 0.154 0.156 0.158 0.16
distance [m]

Fig. 14. Stresses in the coolant tube wall when the fuel salt drains into the drain
tank. Note that in this case, a compressive stress occurs on the outer surface, and a
tensile stress occurs on the inner surface.

Fig. 12. Dependence on a of hoop stress.

Fig. 15. Properties of Hastelloy N, taken from Haynes International, 2002. Top:
Tensile strength. Bottom: maximum allowable design stress.

the pressure tube. The temperature distribution in the pressure tube

is monitored by 12 R-type thermocouples installed at 90° angles. In
one place, there are three thermocouples at 1, 2 and 4 mm from the
Fig. 13. Temperature distribution in tank wall.
outer surface. The temperature of the outer surface of the copper
406 T. Ishiguro et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 64 (2014) 398–407

block is also monitored by K-type thermocouples. In the experiment, We use larger coolant tubes than those used in the evaluation of
NaCl at about 1300 K is used as molten material. ORNL (Robertson, 1971), therefore the thermal shock is smaller.
In the experiment using NaCl, 2.1 l melt at 1313 K was intro- The temperature distribution in the drain tank wall is shown in
duced into the pressure tube within 3.4 s. Fig. 10 shows the mea- Fig. 13, when the fuel salt is in contact with the coolant pipe.
sured temperature transient. The temperature of the pressure Ts in Fig. 13 indicates the temperature on the interface. Ts can be
tube increased up to only 390 K when the high temperature melt calculated by the following equation (van den Akker and Mudde,
contacted the wall. It suggests that there exist a large thermal 1996):
resistance between the melt and the wall of the pressure tube. In pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
our calculations, the tube wall reaches 175 °C, and film-boiling will q1 C 1 k1 T 1;i þ q2 C 2 k2 T 2;i
Ts ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð8Þ
occur on the water side. q1 C 1 k1 þ q2 C 2 k2
It is acknowledged that NaCl has different material properties
qis the density, C is the specific heat, k is the thermal conductivity.
than the fuel salt in FUJI. However, even if material properties dif-
Eq. (8) means that if T1,i and T2,i are constant, Ts is constant. In the
fer, they differ not very much (maybe by a factor of 3–4, but cer-
actual case, time passes, and T1,i and T2,i increase. Therefore this
tainly less than 10). Therefore, the results from the NaCl test are
deemed to be applicable to the FUJI calculations. In our calculation equation can calculate Ts at the initial condition: Ts  230 °C if the
of the proposed drain tank, the tank wall temperature is 175 °C, fuel salt is at 834 °C. Thermal stress occurs in a material with tem-
when the fuel salt temperature is 1390 °C. This calculated value perature gradient. For the present analysis, the stresses were eval-
seems adequate compared with the result of the experiment illus- uated with the following equations (Takeuchi, 1988):
trated above. Therefore we are confident that the calculated result ( )
aET o r 2o  T i r 2i T o  T i r 2o r 2i Ti To  Ti r
from NETFLOW++ is not an (incorrect) artifact but a reliable result. rr ¼      log
1  m 2 ro  r i
2 2 2r 2 2
ro  ri 2 2 2 logðr o =r i Þ ri
Obviously, in the next stage of investigations a more detailed anal- (
)
2 2 2 2
ysis will be necessary. aE T oro  T i ri T o  T i ro ri Ti To  Ti r
rh ¼ þ   1 þ log
1  m 2 r 2o  r 2i 2r 2 r 2o  r 2i 2 2 logðr o =r i Þ ri
" ( ) #
4.3. Criticality evaluation aE 2 2 2 2 2
T o r o  T i r i ðT o  T i Þðr o  r i Þ To  Ti r
rz ¼     T i  log
1  m r 2o  r 2i 2 r 2o  r 2i 4 logðr o =r i Þ logðr o =r i Þ ri
The FUJI-233Um MSR is a thermal reactor, which relies on a mod-
erator (solid graphite) in the core to obtain a critical configuration. ð9Þ
When the fuel salt is drained into the drain tank, one has to ascertain
ais the coefficient of thermal expansion, E is the Youngs modulus, m
that this configuration cannot become critical. The presence of
is the Poisson’s ratio, Ti, To indicate the temperatures of the inner
water (moderator), the absence of control rods, and the fact that
and outer surface, and ri, ro indicate the radii of the inner and outer
the fuel salt cools down (releasing Doppler reactivity), implies that
surface. For the proposed drain tank at the initial conditions of
the system may reach a configuration of (near) criticality.
To = 230 °C and Ti = 40 °C, the stresses are indicated in Fig. 14. The
The analysis of the multiplication factor of the drain tank con-
maximum tensile stress occurs at r = ri and equals about 90 MPa.
figuration was done with the 1-D neutron transport code
The properties of Hastelloy N, which is the material of the drain
XSDRNPM, part of the well-established SCALE-6.0 software pack-
tank, are shown in Fig. 15 (taken from Haynes International,
age (ORNL, 2009). Given that the drain tank consists of a large rect-
2002). The allowable stress at 230 °C is around 145 MPa and at low-
angular volume with many vertical coolant tubes, the analysis was
er temperatures even higher. Given that our calculation shows that
performed on a worst case configuration, i.e an infinite array of
the actual stress is less than 145 MPa, we conclude that the thermal
water cylinders surrounded by fuel salt (see Fig. 11). For the mod-
stress is lower than the allowable stress, and therefore, it is possible
eling in XSDRNPM, an equivalent 1-D model of concentric cylin-
to use water as coolant. Note that the temperature difference across
ders was used. In the neutronic analysis, all materials are
the coolant tube wall decreases once all the salt is drained into the
simulated at 20 °C. For the fuel salt, number densities from the
tank.
ORNL report (Robertson, 1971) were used. The analysis indicates
that the multiplication factor keff = 0.37. This is deemed to be so
far away from keff = 1.00 that under no circumstances a critical con- 5. Conclusion
figuration can exist in the drain tank.
In this paper we present a feasibility study into a passive decay
4.4. Thermal stress evaluation heat removal system for a small Molten Salt Reactor (FUJI-233Um,
450 MWth). The system is based on a salt drain tank, which is in
When the fuel salt drains into the drain tank, there is a large turn cooled by a water loop based on natural convection and an
temperature difference between the fuel salt and the coolant tubes. air cooler. We confirmed that the passive residual heat removal
This causes thermal stress in the tubes. The material stress due to system proposed above can cool the fuel salt safely. The system
thermal shock was evaluated. performance is as follows,
In the initial condition, the tank wall temperature is low, and
fuel salt with a high temperature drains into the tank. Thus the  Maximum water temperature: 96.7 °C.
thermal shock is the highest at the initial condition. We calculate  Maximum fuel temperature: 1390 °C.
the value of thermal shock at this point. Thermal stress consists  Maximum tank material temperature: 175 °C.
of hoop stress and axial stress. We define a as the ratio of outer  Time to solidify: longer than 10 days.
diameter to inner diameter of the coolant tubes:
By comparing the results of our calculations to experimental re-
do
a¼ ð7Þ sults, we have confidence that our calculations give adequate re-
di
sults. Our conclusion regarding the feasibility of water as a
In the case of a constant temperature gradient, the dependence coolant is opposite of the conclusion that ORNL reached in their de-
on a of the hoop stress is shown in Fig. 12. It is seen that the hoop sign evaluation in the 1970s. The biggest difference is that we have
stress decreases as the ratio of outer to inner radius decreases. In chosen to use coolant pipes of a large diameter. This reduces the
other words, in a tube of a given thickness, the hoop stress in the thermal stress up to a point where the thermal shock is no longer
tube decreases if the radius of the tube increases. a problem. In our present work, the natural convection of the fuel
 T. Ishiguro et al. / Annals of Nuclear Energy 64 (2014) 398–407
salt in the drain tank is not calculated. In fact, a rather crude model
was used to estimate the effects of the natural convection on the
heat transfer properties on the fuel side. In the future, we will re-
fine our calculations to include these effects in a more detailed
manner.
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