Professor Abbie Jones, who is a Research Area Lead for Nuclear materials within Royce, alongside Dr. Alex Theodosiou, Dr. Xun Zhang and Professor Clint Sharrad, have successfully secured a three-year EPSRC grant as part of the Joint UK-USA Nuclear Energy University Programme.
This work will to support the development of Next Generation Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs), a type of nuclear reactor that uses a mixture of molten salt and a fissile material as the fuel or coolant. MSRs have several advantages over other types of reactors and are one of the six Generation IV reactor designs being developed for the next generation of nuclear power plants.
The project will involve a new research collaboration between Professor Jones’ Nuclear Graphite Research Group, based at the Royce Hub at the University of Manchester, and American partners, including North Carolina State University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and molten salt reactor developers Terrestrial Energy.
The team will conduct high-fidelity characterisation of molten salt–graphite pore interactions through a combination of experimental work and embedded modelling. This research aims to support the selection of nuclear graphite grades optimised for both current and advanced nuclear technologies.
Conceptual Integrated Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) Plant. Image credit: terrestrialenergy.com
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