| Abstract Scope |
Chloride salts are promising candidate fuel and coolant for some molten salt reactor (MSR) concepts as they offer potential for sustained operation in a fast neutron spectrum with minimal salt processing, passive safety, and a high-power density. However, molten chlorides present significant corrosion challenges to structural materials. Currently, the corrosion data for relevant metal alloys in chloride salts are scarce, presenting technical risks for MSR design and operation. In this work, modeling of salt chemistry and corrosion is performed through first-principle density functional theory (DFT)-based multi-scale modeling. By comparing chloride salt UCl3 and fluoride UF3 counterpart, it was found that chloride salt UCl3 is much more stable than fluoride salt UF3. It also shows that the modeling in salt chemistry and corrosion control is very promising. |