| dc.description.abstract | Global demands for energy decarbonization have led to research and development of advanced nuclear fission reactors, which aim to alleviate public concerns and exhibit significant improvements compared to existing commercial nuclear reactors. The molten salt-cooled reactor (MSR) is one advanced reactor concept that has the potential to provide zero- or low-carbon baseload power and process heat. MSRs have the capability to utilize liquid fuels, which can offer improvements in safety and operability compared to today’s commercial nuclear reactors. However, MSRs are potentially sensitive to variations in salt chemistry and isotopic composition—motivating the development of an MSR subsystem that can facilitate the monitoring and control of the salt properties that can have impacts on reactor safety, operability, and/or safeguards. Within first-generation MSRs, the capability of monitoring salt characteristics, including redox potential, fissile material inventory, fission product behavior, particulate formation, and impurity concentrations, will be performed by physically removing salt samples from reactors via a molten salt sampling system (MSSS). However, the act of removing special nuclear material, containing a substantial fission product inventory, from an operating reactor also poses safeguards and safety concerns that need to be considered during system design. The research within this dissertation was conducted to develop a design for an MSSS, using the principles of functions-based systems engineering, Safety in Design (SiD), and Safeguards by Design (SBD) that can serve as a prototype for a similar system for use within first-generation MSRs. Prototypes of the developed MSSS design were tested within both pneumatic and molten salt environments. Consistent with the principles of SiD and SBD, the performance of the MSSS concept and prototypes were measured against reliability, safety, and safeguards requirements identified for the system. This design process resulted in methodological insights into application of SiD and SBD on early stage designs. | |
