The small nuclear power plants will use molten salt in their fuel, making them safer and more versatile and portable than ...

General diagram. (Source: ORNL ... and many have had prototypes built. So too for molten salt reactors (MSRs), which saw Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) create a number of prototypes ...

Thorium reactor begins real-world operation in China. According to Guangming Daily, the experimental unit is located in the ...

Molten salt nuclear reactors (MSR) also have unique passive methods of preventing nuclear disasters. Some plants are equipped with what's known as a "freeze plug" in the reactor chamber.

Initially developed in the 1950s, molten salt reactors have benefits in higher efficiencies and lower waste generation. Some designs do not require solid fuel, which eliminates the need for ...

A technology called the molten-salt reactor first went online in 1965 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, but was scrapped in the 1970s because it wasn't good for making nuclear weapons. If ...

A National Geographic emerging explorer with a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering, she wants to resurrect the molten-salt reactor, a 1960s-era design that she hopes will revive nuclear energy as a ...

The resulting mixture acts as both the coolant and fuel inside a molten salt reactor. ORNL operated two experimental molten salt reactors in the 1950s and 1960s, but the United States has none in ...