Waste Streams from Next Generation Molten Salt Reactors: the Challenge of Creating an Insoluble Ceramic for Chloride Salt Waste

Abstract

Molten salt reactors (MSRs) design development is of interest to many research groups and companies. Waste management for MSRs is one of the most important issues that needs to be resolved due to its impact on environmental safety, primarily via the dissolution of radionuclides in water. Furthermore, the waste treatment strategy will have a significant influence on the operating cost of MSRs, which is why a reliable process for the immobilization, transportation, storage and disposal of MSR waste must be addressed. This work presents a new approach for the immobilization of chloride salts from molten salt reactors in stable oxyhalide ceramics. The highly soluble chloride salts were converted to durable and stable forms. The converted multi-phase chloride sample, generated from the chloride waste expected to be generated by MSRs, generally exhibited congruent leaching behavior and the release of the constituent elements were lower compared to ARM-1 glass.