Thermodynamics of soluble fission products cesium and iodine in the Molten Salt Reactor

Journal Article (2018)
Author(s)

E. Capelli (TU Delft - RST/Reactor Physics and Nuclear Materials, NRG (Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group) Petten)

O. Beneš (European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Transuranium Elements Karlsruhe)

R. J.M. Konings (European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Transuranium Elements Karlsruhe, TU Delft - RST/Reactor Physics and Nuclear Materials)

Research Group
RST/Reactor Physics and Nuclear Materials
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.01.024
More Info
expand_more
Publication Year
2018
Language
English
Related content
Research Group
RST/Reactor Physics and Nuclear Materials
Volume number
501
Pages (from-to)
238-252
Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Abstract

The present study describes the full thermodynamic assessment of the Li,Cs,Th//F,I system. The existing database for the relevant fluoride salts considered as fuel for the Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) has been extended with two key fission products, cesium and iodine. A complete evaluation of all the common-ion binary and ternary sub-systems of the LiF-ThF4-CsF-LiI-ThI4-CsI system has been performed and the optimized parameters are presented in this work. New equilibrium data have been measured using Differential Scanning Calorimetry and were used to assess the reciprocal ternary systems and confirm the extrapolated phase diagrams. The developed database significantly contributes to the understanding of the behaviour of cesium and iodine in the MSR, which strongly depends on their concentration and chemical form. Cesium bonded with fluorine is well retained in the fuel mixture while in the form of CsI the solubility of these elements is very limited. Finally, the influence of CsI and CsF on the physico-chemical properties of the fuel mixture was calculated as function of composition.