NEUTRONIC STUDY FOR MO-99 PRODUCTION IN AN LEU-FUELED MOLTEN-SALT REACTOR

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the feasibility of producing Mo-99 in a LEU-fueled molten-salt reactor. The reactor was based on the ORNL’s MSRE (Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment) prototype, which was originally designed to operate with HEU fuel. In order to compensate for the loss of reactivity as a result of the fuel conversion, necessary modifications to the core design were made in the aspects of fuel content, fuel-to-graphite ratio, core temperature, and the use of reflectors. A multi-irradiation scheme was proposed for the purpose of Mo-99 production. The neutronics calculation was performed using the SERPENT, which was benchmarked against JMCT and historical MSRE design reports by ORNL.