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Dynamics of Molten Salt Reactors

Jiri Krepel, Ulrich Rohde, Ulrich Grundmann & Frank-Peter Weiss

To cite this article: Jiri Krepel, Ulrich Rohde, Ulrich Grundmann & Frank-Peter Weiss (2008)
Dynamics of Molten Salt Reactors, Nuclear Technology, 164:1, 34-44, DOI: 10.13182/NT08-
A4006

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DYNAMICS OF MOLTEN
SALT REACTORS
JIRI KREPEL* Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Systems Behaviour
Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
ULRICH ROHDE, ULRICH GRUNDMANN, and FRANK-PETER WEISS
Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf e.V., (FZD), Institute of Safety Research
P.O.B. 510119, D-01324 Dresden, Germany
Received April 5, 2007
Accepted for Publication July 31, 2007
The dynamics of the molten salt reactor (MSR), one
of the Generation IV International Forum concepts, was
studied. The graphite-moderated channel-type MSR was
selected for numerical simulation. MSR, a liquid-fueled
reactor, has specific dynamics with two physical pecu-
liarities: The delayed neutron precursors are drifted by
the fuel flow, and the fission energy is released directly
into the coolant. Presently, there are few accessible nu-
merical codes appropriate for MSR simulation; there-
fore, the DYN1D-MSR and DYN3D-MSR codes were
developed based on the light water reactor dynamics
code DYN3D. These allow calculation of one-dimensional
and full three-dimensional transient neutronics in com-
bination with parallel channel–type thermal hydraulics.
The codes were validated with experimental results of the
Molten Salt Reactor Experiment from Oak Ridge Na-
tional Laboratory and applied to several transients typ-
ical for a liquid fuel system. Those transients were initiated
I. INTRODUCTION
The molten salt reactor ~MSR! is an old concept 1
that is presently revisited because of its safety advan-
tages, possibility to use the uranium-thorium fuel cycle,
and the potential to transmute the minor actinides. Inter-
ested countries and institutions are found all around the
world. Motivation for the development of a spatial dy-
namics code for MSR is associated with this revival and
with the need to understand the dynamic behavior of
liquid fuel reactors. The three main advantages of MSR
are
*E-mail: jiri.krepel@psi.ch
34
FISSION REACTORS
KEYWORDS: molten salt, dynam-
ics, MSR
by reactivity insertion, by cold or overfueled slugs, by the
fuel pump start-up or shutdown, or by the blockage of
selected fuel channels. In these considered transients, the
response of MSR is characterized by the immediate change
of the fuel temperature relative to the temperature at that
power level. This causes fast insertion of feedback reac-
tivity, which is negative for power-related temperature
increase. On the other hand, the graphite response is
slower, and its feedback coefficient depends on the core
size and geometry. The addition of erbium to the graphite
can ensure negative feedback and inherent safety fea-
tures also for big low leakage cores. The DYN1D-MSR
and DYN3D-MSR codes have been shown to be effective
tools for MSR dynamics studies. The MSR response to the
majority of transients is considered acceptable within
safety margins as long as the graphite feedback coeffi-
cient is negative. A transient that is possibly an exception
is a local channel blockage.
1. excellent neutron economy
2. possibility of continuous or batch online refuel-
ing or processing
3. inherent safety.
MSR research started in Oak Ridge National Labo-
ratory ~ORNL! with the military project of Aircraft Nu-
clear Propulsion and continued with civilian power reactor
development. The 10-yr-long research led to the Molten
Salt Reactor Experiment 2 ~MSRE!. This experiment was
successful, and it shows that molten salt technology can
be generally used for energy production. Unfortunately,
the next step of development, the molten salt breeder
reactor 3 ~MSBR!, was stopped for several reasons in the
NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY VOL. 164 OCT. 2008

Fig. 1. MSR structural drawing from GIF Web page.
project stage. The research on MSR encompassed also
the dynamics behavior, although the level of computa-
tional resources and simulation tools were limited at that
time. Therefore, it was a challenge to make the dynamics
analysis of MSR by means of current knowledge and
computational methods.
MSRE is the only source of useable experimental
data, and the Generation IV International Forum ~GIF!
concept of MSR @Fig. 1 ~Ref. 4!# is based on the MSBR
design. Therefore, especially these two cores have been
studied. This paper refers to particular results from a
first-author doctoral thesis 5 and was partly done in the
frame of the European project Review of Molten Salt
Technology ~MOST!. Within this project the common
MSR benchmark was carried out.6
II. DYNAMICS CODE DYN3D-MSR
Contemporary MSR research is based on revisions of
the available knowledge and facilitates renewed discus-
sion about advantages and demerits of the technology. Sev-
eral dynamic codes suitable for the MSR simulation 6 ~see
Table I! are available.
NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY VOL. 164 OCT. 2008
Krepel et al. DYNAMICS OF MOLTEN SALT REACTORS
The state of the art in Generation IV reactor simula-
tions is a three-dimensional ~3-D! spatial analysis of tran-
sient processes as can be seen in Ref. 7. Furthermore,
only a spatial code can account for the unusual distribu-
tion of delayed neutron ~DN! precursors ~DNPs! caused
by their drift with the fuel flow, for the spatial tempera-
ture distribution, and for the local perturbations. From
the codes mentioned in Table I, only the Simmer code
includes 3-D neutron-kinetics and thermal-hydraulic mod-
els suitable for the MSR spatial transients. However, the
code is restricted to contract partners. Therefore, it was
decided to develop our own 3-D code for MSR simula-
tion. The development was based on the Forschungszen-
trum Dresden-Rossendorf in-house code DYN3D ~Ref. 8!,
and the resulting code is labeled DYN3D-MSR ~Ref. 9!.
As a by-product of the 3-D version development, the
DYN1D-MSR code 10 was created. This one-dimensional
~1-D! version was used for preliminary studies, and only
selected transients were recalculated by the 3-D version.
DYN3D-MSR is based on a diffusion approach. The
time-dependent neutron diffusion equation for two en-
ergy groups and an arbitrary number of precursor groups
is solved with the help of nodal expansion methods for
hexagonal-Z and Cartesian geometry. In the nodal expan-
sion method, the reactor core is divided into horizontal
35
Krepel et al. DYNAMICS OF MOLTEN SALT REACTORS

TABLE I
Other Numerical Codes Used by MOST Benchmark

Code Name

Cinsf1D ENEA SIMMER SIM-ADS PoliTO

Programming language Fortran 90 MATLAB Fortran 77 Visual Basics —

~Excel 97!
Availability Free access — Only partners Free access —
Energy groups 2 Multi 2-20 0 Multi
Spatial dimension 1-D 1-D 2-D ~3-D! 0-D 2-D
Physical model Diffusion theory Diffusion theory Transport theory Point kinetics Diffusion theory
quasi-static implicit method quasi-static
Precursor groups 6 6 Usually 6 6 6
Flowing fuel model Yes Yes Yes Quasi-static Yes
Thermal feedbacks Variations of cross Variations of cross Variations of cross Reactivity Variations of cross
sections sections sections coefficients sections

slices, and the nodes n are the parts of one or more graph- Qjn ~z, t ! ⫽ DNP source function
ite blocks in each slice. The thicknesses of the axial slices
can differ. The neutron group constants are assumed to be lnj ⫽ DNP decay constant.
spatially constant within each node n. The time-dependent
diffusion equations in a node n for the fast and thermal Convective derivative ~]0]z!~v n Cjn ~z, t !! encompasses
neutron fluxes are written by using standard notation,8 the DNP drifting phenomenon, and therefore, the method
of characteristics 5 was used to solve this nodal DNP
]F1n ~r, t ! equation. The DNP concentrations outgoing from the
⫹ ¹J1n ~r, t ! ⫹ S rn ~t !F1n ~r, t ! core were mixed in the upper plenum. The DNP con-
v1n]t
centration ingoing to the first node was initially deter-
1 2 mined from the steady-state conditions. The transient
⫽ ( ~1 ⫺ bgn !nS nf, g ~t !Fgn ~r, t ! recirculation model is described in Ref. 9. The resulting
k eff g⫽1 drifting model was based on these nodal solutions and
integrated into the DYN3D neutronics. The criticality at
M
the beginning of the transient is achieved in the DYN3D-
⫹ ( lnj Cjn ~r, t ! ⫹ Sext
n
~r! MSR code by the fission cross-section multiplication
j⫽1
with 10k eff .
and In the frame of this work, the DYN3D channel-type
thermal-hydraulic FLOCAL model 11 originally designed
]F2n ~r, t ! for light water–cooled reactors was modified and applied
⫹ ¹J2n ~r, t ! ⫹ S na ~t !F2n ~r, t !
v2n]t for MSR. FLOCAL includes also the boiling model; how-
ever, in the MSR case only the one-phase salt was ac-
⫽ S sn ~t !F1n ~r, t ! , ~1! counted for, and three thermal-hydraulic equations for
momentum, energy, and mass balance were solved:
and the DNP equation for every axial node n of the core
and external primary circuit, ] ] ]pfric ]p
~rv! ⫹ ~rv 2 ! ⫹ ⫹ gr ⫹ ⫽0 ,
]Cjn ~z, t ! ] ]t ]z ]z ]z
⫹ ~v n Cjn ~z, t !! ⫽ Qjn ~z, t ! ⫺ lnj Cjn ~z, t ! ,
]t ]z
] ]
~rh! ⫹ ~rvh! ⫽ Q f ,
~2! ]t ]z
where
and
Cjn ~z, t ! ⫽ DNP concentration for node n and DNP
group j ] ]
~r! ⫹ ~rv! ⫽ 0 , ~3!
v ⫽ fuel ~drifting! velocity
n ]t ]z

36 NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY VOL. 164 OCT. 2008

 Krepel et al. DYNAMICS OF MOLTEN SALT REACTORS

where
r ⫽ fuel density
v ⫽ velocity
h ⫽ enthalpy
Q f ⫽ volumetric heat source in the fuel.
The function Q f ~z, t ! consists of three terms:
Q f ~z, t ! ⫽ Qfission ~z, t ! ⫹ Qdecay ⫹ Qgraphite ~z, t ! .

~4!

The three sources in Eq. ~4! represent direct fission

energy release Qfission , decay heat Qdecay , and heat ex-
change between the graphite and salt Qgraphite . The first
source Qfission is the fission heat directly released into the
fuel. It is proportional to the neutron flux, and it repre-
sents ;90% of the total energy. The second source Qdecay
represents the decay heat, which is uniformly released in
the whole fuel salt volume. It is assumed to be constant
during the transients, and the level of decay heat is fixed
to a given fraction of nominal power. The third source
Qgraphite represents the heat exchange between graphite Fig. 2. Reconstructed axial cut of the MSRE vessel.
and fuel and requires an extra numerical model. This is
based on the effective heat transfer coefficient method,
where the graphite block is in each node approximated
by a cylinder and divided into radial segments.10 Inte-
gration of this model is the main FLOCAL modification.
Furthermore, the correlations for the heat transfer coef-
ficient between graphite and salt and the salt thermal-
hydraulic parameters were applied. The detailed theory
and description of the numerical solution together with
the voluminous results of the MSR transient analysis can
be found in Ref. 5.

III. STUDIED REACTORS

As mentioned in Sec. I, two reactor projects from

ORNL were studied. MSRE was built in the 1960s, and
its results can be used to validate the numerical codes. It
was an 8-MW fluid-fueled test reactor with ;0.2 m0s
fuel flow velocity ~see Fig. 2!, operated from 1965 through
1969 in the frame of thermal energetic breeder develop-
ment using the thorium-uranium fuel cycle. It has dem-
onstrated that MSRs can be extremely flexible.2,12 Fig. 3. Reconstructed axial cut of the MSBR vessel.
MSBR was designed as an industrial power succes-
sor of MSRE but was not built. The projected core power
was 2250 MW, and the reactor vessel should have been
6.5 m high and 7.2 m in diameter ~see Fig. 3! with ;1
IV. MOST BENCHMARK
m0s fuel flow velocity.3 Both reactors, MSRE and the
following MSBR design study, are well described in the
ORNL semiannual and annual reports from the 1960s MSRE represents the only source of experimental data
and 1970s ~e.g., Refs. 3 and 12!. for the code validation. Therefore, it was used in the frame

NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY VOL. 164 OCT. 2008 37

Krepel et al. DYNAMICS OF MOLTEN SALT REACTORS

TABLE II
Dynamics-Related Steady-State Parameters

Core and Cross-Section Library

MSRE U233 MSRE U235 MSBR BOL MSBR BOR MSBR EQL MSBR EQR

k eff a ~at 6508C! 1.11952 1.06161 0.99323 0.96827 1.05513 1.03186

Total ~pcm b08C! ⫺15.206 ⫺11.093 ⫺0.251 ⫺3.881 0.263 ⫺2.681
Graphite ⫺5.305 ⫺4.502 2.365 ⫺0.605 2.172 ⫺0.237
Salt temperature feedback coefficient ⫺10.443 ⫺7.127 ⫺2.646 ⫺3.233 ⫺1.924 ⫺2.392
Lc ~s⫺1 ! ~⫻10 ⫺4 ! 4.0533 2.4781 4.708 4.536 3.805 3.682
d
beff ~pcm! 289.38 666.1 303.6 303.6 330.9 330.9
DN loss by drift ~pcm! 125.3 263.6 212.7 212.1 230.8 230.3
DN loss ~% of beff ! 43.3 39.6 70.1 69.9 69.7 69.6
ak
eff corresponds to a designed core without control rods.
b
1 pcm ⫽ 10⫺5.
c L ⫽ average neutron generation time

eff ⫽ effective share of DN.

db

of the European MOST project 6 for the common bench-
mark definition. The MOST benchmark consists of four
tasks: three zero-power simulations with a given fuel tem-
perature of 6508C and one natural-circulation transient sim-
ulation. The experimental results measured during the
MSRE operation were used as follows:
1. effective loss of DNs in steady-state operation
2. protected fuel pump start-up
3. protected fuel pump shutdown
4. natural-circulation experiment.
“ Protected” means that a constant power was main-
tained by control rods during the transient. These tasks
were calculated using several codes in five participating
institutions. Material data and the core geometry were
taken from ORNL documentation, and the cross-section
libraries used for the calculations have been prepared by
project participant Electricité de France ~EDF! with the
Apollo code.13
Two libraries were generated for MSRE and four for
MSBR. The MSRE libraries differ in the fuel loading and
are labeled U233 and U235. The MSBR libraries have
been prepared for two fuel states: beginning of load ~BOL!
and equilibrium ~EQL! and are respectively labeled BOL
and EQL. The initial ~start-up! fuel concentration was
used for the BOL library calculation, and the equilibrium
fuel concentration was used for the EQL library calcula-
tion. Moreover, two modified libraries with erbium ad-
dition in the graphite labeled BOR and EQR have been
prepared by EDF. These MSBR libraries have been pre-
pared for the second MOST benchmark based on MSBR
geometry, which is not reported here.
The effective DN loss in steady-state operation can
be seen in Table II. The fuel circulation represents a
reactivity loss, which is dependent mainly on the circu-
lation velocity. The results of the protected fuel pump
start-up transient are presented here as a second exam-
ple. In this transient, the fuel velocity accelerates in
10 s from zero to the nominal value ~0.2 m0s!. Linear
interpolation between known points of the fuel pump
start-up curve was used as the driving force, whereby
one passage of the fuel through the whole primary cir-
cuit takes 25 s by nominal velocity. The core passage
takes ;8 s ~not counting the plenum!. With fuel accel-
eration, the DNPs start to be drifted out of the core, and
the rods are withdrawn to compensate for the resulting
reactivity loss and to keep the power constant. The in-
serted reactivity was measured at MSRE and could be
compared with the calculation ~see Fig. 4!. Two DN
data sets were used here: the original MSRE DN data 12
and the cross-section–generated JEF DN data, which
are based on the JEF 2.0 library. The agreement of the
experimental data and the numerical simulation is good.
Better agreement was achieved for the JEF DN data.
The shape of the response is given by the initial mas-
sive loss of DNPs with the fuel acceleration. The later
oscillations are caused by partial recirculation of DNPs
back from the external piping to the core.
V. SIMULATED TRANSIENTS
After the validation the 1-D and 3-D codes were
applied to several transients driven by reactivity inser-
tion, by the fuel pump start-up or shutdown, by the cold

38 NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY VOL. 164 OCT. 2008

 Krepel et al. DYNAMICS OF MOLTEN SALT REACTORS

V.A. Reactivity-Driven Transients

The first group of simulated transients was driven by

Fig. 4. Compensative reactivity inserted by the control rods
during the fuel pump start-up transient to maintain the
constant power ~U235 loading, ORNL, and JEF DN
data!.
or overfueled slug of fuel salt, or by the blockage of
selected fuel channels. Before the transients’ simulation
the dynamics-related steady-state parameters were cal-
culated ~see Table II!.
reactivity insertion. The reactivity prompt jumps by up to
300 pcm ~per cento mile ⫽ 10⫺5 ! were simulated at zero
and nominal power with zero and nominal fuel flow rate.
From the safety point of view, the maximum peak power
and temperature reached during these transients are the
main parameters that should be inspected. It is clear the
power and temperature levels are correlated to each other
and that the temperature response depends on the thermal-
hydraulic properties of the simulated core.
However, independent from the value of the nega-
tive salt reactivity feedback coefficient, the power peak
depends also on the neutronics parameters, especially on
the average neutron generation time L and on the ratio
between the effective DN share beff and the inserted re-
activity jump ~see Table II!. Therefore, the power rises
faster for all MSBR loadings and for MSRE with U233
loading than for the MSRE with U235 loading. In the
MSBR case, the response to the reactivity jump is qual-
itatively comparable to the MSRE0U233 case. The fast
growth is slowed down by the negative salt reactivity
feedback coefficient ~Fig. 5!. Furthermore, the behavior
of MSBR is comparable for all four loadings; therefore,

Fig. 5. Response of MSRE with U233 loading ~left! and of MSBR with BOR loading ~right! to the reactivity insertion with several
reactivity levels at nominal power calculated by DYN3D-MSR code. The power ~top! is shown for all reactivity levels; the
temperatures ~bottom! represent only 300 pcm insertion results.

NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY VOL. 164 OCT. 2008 39

Krepel et al. DYNAMICS OF MOLTEN SALT REACTORS
only the BOR loading response is compared with the
MSRE0U233 case in Fig. 5.
V.B. Pump-Driven Transients
The second group of studied transients is driven by
the changing pumping rate. Basic cases are the fuel pump
start-up and shutdown, where the protected start-up tran-
sient was already presented with the MOST benchmark
~see Fig. 4!. In that case constant power was maintained
by control rods. Thereinafter, the response to the unpro-
tected fuel pump–driven transients is presented here. Be-
cause of the DNP drifting phenomenon, the pump start-up
represents DN loss and evokes negative reactivity. There-
fore, it is not so interesting from a safety point of view.
On the other hand, the fuel pump shutdown causes DN
gain, which evokes positive reactivity. Thus, it is the
main transient from this group to be analyzed. Further-
more, this transient can be used to show the differences
between the 1-D and 3-D versions of the code.
By the pump shutdown ~or pump-trip! transient, the
fuel is initially circulating through the primary circuit at
nominal velocity ~0.2 m 0s for MSRE and 1 m 0s for
MSBR!. The nominal DN loss is compensated by control
rods, and the core remains critical. Then, the pump is
stopped using the MSRE pump shutdown curve in 10 s.
Subsequently, the fuel flow stops too, and the DNPs are
no longer drifted out of the core. Accordingly, the reac-
tivity gain is produced by the changing DN distribution.
The absolute value of the reached DN gain is lower or equal
to the DN loss ~see Table II!. Simultaneously, the shut-
down of the fuel pump represents also loss of cooling ca-
pacity, and the fuel and graphite temperatures grow rapidly
if a significant power level is present. The overall temper-
ature feedback ~see Table II! determines the behavior.
The response to the shutdown is interesting espe-
cially for the initial zero power. In this case it takes ;1 or
2 min for the MSBR or MSRE core, respectively, before
the negative feedback acts. The comparison of the 1-D and
Fig. 6. Power response to unprotected fuel pump shutdown ~a! of the MSRE core with U233 and U235 loadings calculated with
1-D and 3-D code for zero ~1 kW! initial power and ~b! of the MSBR core with BOL and BOR loadings calculated with
1-D core for zero ~1 MW! and nominal ~2250 MW! power.
40
3-D results for the MSRE core with both loadings and zero
initial power can be seen in Fig. 6a. The first 10 min of the
transient were studied. The peak power is lower in the 3-D
cases. This is caused by different circulation velocities after
the first 1 min of the transient. In the 1-D case the velocity
remains zero, but in the 3-D case it is forced by natural
circulation. Therefore, the DN loss grows again and re-
duces the power increase. This effect is also supported by
the thermal feedback of the fuel salt. In the 3-D model the
higher maximal temperature in the core center is reached
in spite of the lower power peak.
In the MSBR case the fuel pump coastdown transient
was simulated for all four loadings and for the zero and
nominal initial power levels. The response at zero and
nominal power in the EQR and BOR cases is qualita-
tively comparable with the previous MSRE results. How-
ever, in the BOL and EQL cases, the response differs.
The response can become unstable because of the posi-
tive graphite feedback. In Fig. 6b the responses of the
BOL and BOR cases for both initial power levels are
shown. The growth caused by the positive graphite feed-
back can be seen in the BOL case. This growth is avoided
in the case of BOR fuel loading because the erbium as a
spectra-dependent absorber was added to the graphite to
preserve its negative temperature feedback.
V.C. Slug Flow Transients
The transients driven by overfueled or cold slug flow
belong in this group. These transients should simulate
possible accidents caused by the online refueling unit,
where the concentration of uranium salt is factitiously
increased ~overfueling! in the carrier salt, or by a cold
fuel salt slug in the external circuit part, which is colder
than the salt temperature in the core. The most realistic
initial condition is zero power level and not circulating
fuel, where the salt is cold or overfueled in the external
primary circuit parts and the transient is initiated by the
fuel pump start-up. Therefore, the DN loss acts also here.
NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY VOL. 164 OCT. 2008

Furthermore, the pump start-up as a driving event causes
transport delay before the maximal response is reached
as it can be seen on all presented slug flow results.
For the overfueled slug transient, it is assumed that
the uranium salt molar concentration in the carrier salt is
increased by up to 5%, where the initial concentration
corresponds to the ORNL fuel composition.3,5,12 The cor-
responding cross-section libraries were provided by EDF
with the standard libraries. Therefore, the overfueled slug
with up to 5% excess of uranium salt and with a slug
volume up to the volume of the external primary circuit
can be simulated.
By simulated refueling error the uranium concentra-
tion in the pipelines had an excess of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5% in
the MSRE case and of 1, 3, and 5% in the MSBR case.
The MSRE core with U235 loading was selected as an
example here. Furthermore, to show the influence of the
DN loss caused by the fuel pump start-up, the nominal
case with no excess labeled 0%, which corresponds to the
unprotected fuel pump start-up transient, was added to
Fig. 7a just to compare the effect of the over-fueled slug
with the loss of DN.
In the case of 1% uranium excess, the DN loss still
prevails upon the overfueling and the power decreases;
however, already in the case of 2% uranium excess, the
power grows. Nevertheless, the growth up is slow and
the transient is still driven only by neutronics ~see Fig. 7a!.
On the other hand, for 3, 4, and 5% of excess, the power
grows to a significant level ~see Fig. 7b!, and the thermal
feedback acts as a brake. In the worst case the peak
power of 530 MW is reached. Nevertheless, the response
has a periodical character with descending amplitude,
and the average salt temperature in the core remains below
7508C. This is acceptable from a safety point of view.
The second member of this group, the cold slug flow
transient, is based on the same scenario as the overfueled
transient. The only difference is that overfueling is re-
placed by overcooling. This can be caused by malfunc-
Fig. 7. MSRE response to the overfueled slug flow ~at zero power by fuel pump start-up!. Six excess concentrations were
simulated as follows: ~a! 0, 1, and 2% and ~b! 3, 4, and 5%.
NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY VOL. 164 OCT. 2008
Krepel et al. DYNAMICS OF MOLTEN SALT REACTORS
tion of the heat exchanger by reactor operation or by a
reactor start-up with different fuel salt temperatures in
the external primary circuit and in the core. The lowest
nonfrozen cold slug temperature was selected to maxi-
mize the temperature difference. This is given by the
solidification temperature of the primary and secondary
salt, which is 434 and 4558C, respectively. It is assumed
that both salts are liquid during this transient; therefore,
4808C was selected as the extreme low slug temperature
for both cores.
The cold slug transient was studied for both MSRE
loadings and for all four MSBR loadings. It was initial-
ized by the fuel pump start-up using the pump start-up
curve as a driving function; therefore, the resulting re-
sponse is a combination of DN loss and cold slug effect.
As Fig. 8a shows, the increase of power for the U235
case is by three orders lower than for the U233 case. It is
caused by the higher DN loss in the U235 case ~see
Table II!, which acts as the counterbalance of the cold
slug. The second reason is the higher negative salt feed-
back coefficient in the U233 case, which causes higher
positive reactivity insertion in the cold slug transients
~see Table II!. Therefore, the peak power for the U233
case is 430 MW. However, the peak is narrow, and the
induced temperature increase is small. The average salt
temperature in the core is fast equalized with the graphite
temperature by the heat exchange even in the U235 case
~see Fig. 8b!, where the released energy is small.
The MSBR response to the cold slug flow transient is
also a combination of DN loss and cold slug effect. As
Fig. 9a shows, the DN loss prevails upon the cold slug–
induced reactivity in the EQL, EQR, and BOL cases, and
the power decreases from the beginning. Only in the
BOR case with the highest negative feedback coefficient
of the salt ~see Table II! does the power initially grow.
Anyway, a significant power level is not reached in all
four cases. Therefore, the cold slug is not heated by the
reactor power but just by graphite-salt heat exchange, so
41
Krepel et al. DYNAMICS OF MOLTEN SALT REACTORS

Fig. 8. ~a! Power and ~b! temperature response of MSRE core with U233 and U235 loadings to the 4808C cold slug flow transient
at zero power. The transient is driven by the fuel pump start-up curve, where the nominal flowing rate is reached in 10 s.

Fig. 9. ~a! Power and ~b! temperature response of the MSBR core with all four loadings to the 4808C cold slug flow transient at
zero power. The transient is driven by the fuel pump start-up curve, where the nominal flowing rate is reached in 10 s.

the temperature response is the same for all four loadings
~see Fig. 9b!.
V.D. Local Channel Blockage
Local channel blockage belongs to the group of
channel-wise transients, which cannot be treated without
the full 3-D code. It is based on the nonzero risk of
channel blockage. The central blocked channels repre-
sent three radial neutronics nodes, which correspond to
17.4 and 51 thermal-hydraulic channels of the MSRE
and MSBR cores, respectively. This is based on the dif-
ferent node size in each core.
During the transient, the inlet resistance of the dis-
turbed channels is increased by five orders of magnitude.
This new high value represents almost no flow blockage.
It results in fast local heating of the fuel salt. At the same
time, the DNP drift is stopped in these channels, and the
new DNP distribution represents the equivalent of reac-
tivity gain. The DN gain differs between U233 and U235.
This is based on the different initial DN loss ~see Table II!.
As can be seen from Fig. 10, the power response of
MSRE takes minutes. However, it differs qualitatively for
the two transients. It is given by the different DN gain,
which is higher for the U235 loading. Therefore, the power
first grows in this case and later decreases by the thermal
feedback of the overheated zone. Figure 11 presents the
DN gain and the fuel salt temperature distribution at t ⫽
20 s for the U235 loadings. Nevertheless, for the reactor
safety it is important that the maximal salt temperature is
incessantly growing, and an action of the control rods will
be needed to prevent the temperature trip.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
Known MSRE and MSBR geometry and core pa-
rameters were used for the numerical simulation of MSR

42 NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY VOL. 164 OCT. 2008

 Krepel et al. DYNAMICS OF MOLTEN SALT REACTORS

Fig. 10. Response of the MSRE core with U233 and U235 loadings to the local channel blockade: ~a! power curves, ~b! graphite
and salt temperatures. The maximal salt temperatures are shown using the right axis ~b!.

Fig. 11. Response of the MSRE core with U235 loading to the local channel blockade: ~a! 3-D salt temperature and ~b! DNP
distribution at t ⫽ 20 s.

transients because the GIF proposed system is based on
MSBR and the MSRE results could have been used for
the validation of the numerical codes. Especially, the
common benchmark based on the MSRE data was de-
fined by participants of the European Union project
MOST. This benchmark consists of four tasks and was
used for the successful validation of both the DYN1D-
MSR and the DYN3D-MSR codes. After the validation,
several transient types typical for MSR were simulated.
The 1-D version was always used for the sensitivity analy-
sis of the reactor response, where the most extreme tran-
sient was identified first; then, the 3-D version was applied
to the selected scenarios.
Several groups of driving events were studied by the
MSR transient analysis. In each group, one transient was
selected for the 3-D simulation. The results of the 1-D and
the 3-D codes are qualitatively in good agreement. How-
ever, there are some differences caused by 3-D effects. The
MSR neutronics is fuel velocity–sensitive, and the DNP
drift raises safety issues, which show in the pump-driven
transients and partly show in transients with high temper-
ature changes. Generally, the results of all simulations are
acceptable from a safety consideration; they do not ex-
ceed limits. However, there are two exceptions where the
boiling temperature could be reached. The first exception
is caused by the MSBR positive graphite feedback coef-
ficient of the BOL and EQL loadings, which was demon-
strated here by the fuel pump shut-down transient. And
the second exception is a channel blockage in either MSRE
or MSBR core. In this case the temperature in blocked chan-
nels can reach the salt boiling point, whereby the average
outlet temperature remains constant or even decreases.Ac-
cordingly, a core can be locally damaged if the local block-
age remains unremedied.

NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY VOL. 164 OCT. 2008 43

Krepel et al. DYNAMICS OF MOLTEN SALT REACTORS
The developed codes DYN1D-MSR and DYN3D-
MSR have been validated and applied for the numerical
simulations and shown to be suitable tools for MSR dy-
namics analysis.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The work reported about was partially funded by the Eu-
ropean Commission within the project MOST ~contract
FIKS-CT-2001-20183!.
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