Los Alamos National Laboratory to Lead Study of Molten-salt Nuclear Reactor Materials

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https://discover.lanl.gov/news/0816-molten-salt
Los Alamos National Laboratory

September 7, 2022 | Originally published by Los Alamos National Laboratory on September 15, 2022

Los Alamos National Laboratory has been selected by the Department of Energy as the lead on a $9.25 million, five-year collaborative project in nuclear energy research. The Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program aims to advance modeling the behavior and properties of structural materials under molten salt conditions by using high-performance computing. Molten-salt nuclear reactors are a reactor design with potential advantages in efficiency, waste and safety over conventional reactors.

“Over the next 30 years, the energy production in the United States will have to change,” said Laurent Capolungo, scientist with the Laboratory and the lead researcher on the project. “Molten-salt reactors can be transformative for society — cheaper, safer and more thermodynamically efficient, meaning they generate more energy from the fissile material and produce less waste.”

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