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Review of R&D of thorium molten-salt reactor   KAMEI Takashi   Kyoto Neutronics, 134 Chudoji Minamimachi,Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto, 600-8813, Japan (takashi.kamei@kyoto-neutronics.co.jp)   Abstract:Nuclear power will be used continuously as low-carbon energy for a sustainable society. On the other hand, prime attention is inclined to thorium molten-salt reactor (MSR) in recent years due to necessity for radioactive waste disposal, nuclear non-proliferation (“world without nuclear weapon”) and higher safety of nuclear power. Thorium MSR is a type of liquid-fueled reactor utilizing thorium as fertile with some fissile materials contained in molten-salt. Research and development (R&D) of MSR started in the 1950s at Oak-Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for aircraft reactors. R&D activities were later extended to develop civilian power reactors using thorium, a concept which was completed in the 1970s. Nonetheless, technical problems still remained, such as temperature reactivity coefficient, material corrosion, and tritium permeation at heat exchanger. Since the 1980s several R&D activities to circumvent these problems have been done inside and outside ORNL. The problems relating to thorium MSR and recent R&D activities will be introduced in this paper. Keyword: thorium; molten-salt reactor; technical problems
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