Abstract
With an increased interest in the use of molten salts in both nuclear and non-nuclear systems, measuring important thermophysical properties of specific salt mixtures becomes critical in understanding salt performance and behavior. One of the more basic and significant thermophysical properties of a given salt system is density as a function of temperature. With this in mind, this work aims to present and layout a novel approach to measuring densities of molten salt systems using neutron radiography. This work was performed on Flight Path 5 at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In order to benchmark this initial work, three salt mixtures were measured, NaCl, LiCl (58.2 mol%) + KCl (41.8 mol%), and MgCl (32 mol%) + KCl (68 mol%). Resulting densities as a function of temperature for each sample from this work were then compared to previous works employing traditional techniques. Results from this work match well with previous literature values for all salt mixtures measured, establishing that neutron radiography is a viable technique to measure density as a function of temperature in molten salt systems. Finally, advantages of using neutron radiography over other methods are discussed and future work in improving this technique is covered.
Highlights
Interest in exploring molten salts has increased within various energy applications due to its observed advantages over other materials, such as high volumetric heat capacity, low vapor pressure, low sensitivity to neutron irradiation, and mutual solubility with actinides [1]
In non-nuclear applications, nitrate molten salts as coolant have been proposed as heat transfer fluid (HTF) and in thermal energy storage (TES) systems for concentrated solar power (CSP) systems [13]
Given some of the challenges encountered using existing methods, along with large discrepancies often observed in reported results, there is a need to measure and verify densities using a variety of methods. With this in mind we have developed a novel approach to measuring densities of molten salts using neutron radiography
Summary
Interest in exploring molten salts has increased within various energy applications due to its observed advantages over other materials, such as high volumetric heat capacity, low vapor pressure, low sensitivity to neutron irradiation, and mutual solubility with actinides [1]. With respect to nuclear applications, the molten salt reactor (MSR) is a heavily pursued advanced reactor concept, with a number of designs and fuel compositions under investigation by developers, both domestically and internationally. In large part, these designs consist of an actinide–halide fuel form dissolved in an alkali/alkaline earth metal halide solvent salt [2,3]. In non-nuclear applications, nitrate molten salts as coolant have been proposed as HTF and in thermal energy storage (TES) systems for concentrated solar power (CSP) systems [13]
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