A Starting Procedure for the MSFR: Approach to Criticality and Incident Analysis
Résumé
Molten salt reactors are liquid-fueled reactors so that
they are flexible in terms of operation (load-following
capabilities…) or design (core geometry, fuel composition,
specific power level…) choices, but they are very different
in terms of design and safety approach compared to solidfueled
reactors. Such reactors call for a new definition of
their operating procedures. Dedicated studies are
performed in the frame of the European SAMOFAR (Safety
Assessment of Molten Salt Fast Reactors) project of
Horizon2020. This paper focuses on the behavior of the
MSFR fuel circuit in interaction with the intermediate
circuit. It is devoted to the start-up procedure of the MSFR,
including the description of the proposed procedure, a
presentation of the approach to criticality and the
reactivity measurement during the filling of the core, and
finally studies of accident scenarios (overcooling,
reactivity insertion) at low power during the divergence
step of the MSFR, highlighting the very good behavior of
the reactor to such abnormal transients.