Education and Training Series #77: Graphite-Molten Salt Interactions

These webinars, organised by the GIF Education and Training Working Group are streamed live monthly. The recordings and slide decks are accessible after the webinar on this website. These webinars cover a very broad range of technical and policy related topics. At the end of 2023 they have been viewed by more than 15000 people (approximately half of the views during the live streams and the other half views being of the archives on the public GIF website). In total, the GIF webinars have reached Generation IV enthusiasts, scientists, and engineers in more than 80 countries.

These webinars are organised and hosted by the GIF Education and Training Working Group (ETWG). 

The new High Temperature Reactor (HTR) designs being considered for future Gen IV nuclear reactor deployment include designs utilizing molten salt as the primary coolant. These molten-salt cooled, graphite core designs pose new material compatibility challenges that are not considered within the gas-cooled HTR designs that have been previously built and operated. In MSRs, graphite is not only exposed to fast neutron irradiation but also in continuous contact with the coolant molten salt, the fuel salt, or both, depending on the design. The continuous operation in contact with the molten salts is expected to affect graphite’s local composition and microstructure, which in turn impacts the mechanical, thermal, and irradiation-resistance properties of the graphite. These issues are currently under investigation within the DOE Advanced Reactor Technologies (ART) graphite program and will be presented at this seminar.