Development of a three dimension multi-physics code for molten salt fast reactor

Abstract

Molten Salt Reactor(MSR) was selected as one of the six innovative nuclear reactors by the Generation IV International Forum(GIF).The circulating-fuel in the can-type molten salt fast reactor makes the neutronics and thermo-hydraulics of the reactor strongly coupled and different from that of traditional solid-fuel reactors.In the present paper,a new coupling model is presented that physically describes the inherent relations between the neutron flux,the delayed neutron precursor,the heat transfer and the turbulent flow.Based on the model,integrating nuclear data processing,CAD modeling,structured and unstructured mesh technology,data analysis and visualization application,a three dimension steady state simulation code system(MSR3DS) for the can-type molten salt fast reactor is developed and validated.In order to demonstrate the ability of the code,the three dimension distributions of the velocity,the neutron flux,the delayed neutron precursor and the temperature were obtained for the simplified MOlten Salt Advanced Reactor Transmuter(MOSART) using this code.The results indicate that the MSR3DS code can provide a feasible description of multi-physical coupling phenomena in can-type molten salt fast reactor.Furthermore,the code can well predict the flow effect of fuel salt and the transport effect of the turbulent diffusion.