So, in a conventional reactor, you use nuclear fission to heat/pressurize water and then use your hot, slightly radioactive steam turn a turbine. This mostly works because moving even very hot, very high pressure water around is kind of a solved problem in industry.
In a molten salt reactor, you use nuclear fission to melt various corrosive salts into a fluid, and this is good because molten salts store a lot more energy per unit (volume, presumably?) at low pressures, so you can transfer heat indirectly to nearby turbine-turning water without irradiating the water or relying on high-pressure water to cool your reactor. Cool.
But I was under the impression that the main stumbling block for molten salt reactors was that high-energy corrosion resistant materials for containing / moving molten salt simply don't exist (yet). I suppose this is less of a problem for a research reactor, but it doesn't sound like there's been a materials breakthrough here that's allowing them to get started. Are they just plowing forward and they'll need to replace the containment infrastructure every few years?
In a molten salt reactor, you use nuclear fission to melt various corrosive salts into a fluid, and this is good because molten salts store a lot more energy per unit (volume, presumably?) at low pressures, so you can transfer heat indirectly to nearby turbine-turning water without irradiating the water or relying on high-pressure water to cool your reactor. Cool.
But I was under the impression that the main stumbling block for molten salt reactors was that high-energy corrosion resistant materials for containing / moving molten salt simply don't exist (yet). I suppose this is less of a problem for a research reactor, but it doesn't sound like there's been a materials breakthrough here that's allowing them to get started. Are they just plowing forward and they'll need to replace the containment infrastructure every few years?