The Dual Fluid Reactor is a reactor concept of the Canadian company Dual Fluid Energy Inc. It combines techniques from

molten salt reactor A molten-salt reactor (MSR) is a class of nuclear fission reactor in which the primary nuclear reactor coolant and/or the fuel is a mixture of molten salt with a fissile material. Two research MSRs operated in the United States in the mid-20th ...

s (MSR) and liquid metal cooled reactors. It is intended to reach the criteria for reactors of the Generation IV International Forum.

Design

The fuel can be a molten solution of

actinide The actinide () or actinoid () series encompasses at least the 14 metallic chemical elements in the 5f series, with atomic numbers from 89 to 102, actinium through nobelium. Number 103, lawrencium, is also generally included despite being part ...

chloride The term chloride refers to a compound or molecule that contains either a chlorine anion (), which is a negatively charged chlorine atom, or a non-charged chlorine atom covalently bonded to the rest of the molecule by a single bond (). The pr ...

salts, or it can be pure liquid actinide metal. Cooling is provided by molten

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

in a separate loop. It is a

fast breeder reactor A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. These reactors can be Nuclear fuel, fueled with more-commonly available isotopes of uranium and Isotopes of thorium, thorium, such as uranium-238 and t ...

, and can use both

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

and

thorium Thorium is a chemical element; it has symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is a weakly radioactive light silver metal which tarnishes olive grey when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft, malleable, and ha ...

to breed fissile material, as well as recycle processed high-level waste and

plutonium Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...

. The reactor is inherently safe, because decay heat can be removed passively. This takes advantage of the high

thermal conductivity The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to heat conduction, conduct heat. It is commonly denoted by k, \lambda, or \kappa and is measured in W·m−1·K−1. Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low ...

of the molten metal. U-238 of a spent nuclear fuel element of a

light water reactor The light-water reactor (LWR) is a type of thermal-neutron reactor that uses normal water, as opposed to heavy water, as both its coolant and neutron moderator; furthermore a solid form of fissile elements is used as fuel. Thermal-neutron react ...

can be dissolved in

Chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between ...

-salt, including long-living

transuranic The transuranium (or transuranic) elements are the chemical elements with atomic number greater than 92, which is the atomic number of uranium. All of them are radioactively unstable and decay into other elements. Except for neptunium and pluton ...

isotopes.

Breeding Breeding is sexual reproduction that produces offspring, usually animals or plants. It can only occur between a male and a female animal or plant. Breeding may refer to: * Animal husbandry, through selected specimens such as dogs, horses, and rab ...

and fission could power a 300MW electrical Dual Fluid Reactor for about 25 years. The initial fuel would be completely converted into fission products with radiotoxicity reduced from a hundreds of thousands of years to a few hundred years. This essentially eliminates the need for problematic long term storage. DFR characteristic properties

History

A conceptual predecessor of the Dual Fluid Reactor was the UK 1970s lead-cooled fast spectrum molten salt reactor (MSFR), which dissolved the fissile fuel in a molten salt, with experimental work undertaken over 1968-73, before it lost funding. The Dual Fluid Reactor was initially developed by a German research institute, the Institute for Solid-State Nuclear Physics in Berlin. In February 2021, the six inventors, along with the existing team, formed Canadian company Dual Fluid Energy Inc. to commercialize the design. In June 2021, the company secured over $6 million in Canadian seed funding. One patent has been obtained, and another is pending on the liquid metal fuel variant. The reactor design won the public vote for the Galileo Knowledge Prize in the German GreenTec Awards of 2013, although the award committee presiding over the awards changed the rules to exclude nuclear designs before announcing the winner. Dual Fluid participants successfully sued to remedy this. In 2023 the company signed a deal signed with the Rwanda Atomic Energy Board (RAEB) to build a demonstrator reactor. The reactor is expected to be complete by 2026 and complete testing by 2028.

References

External links

Dual Fluid Reactor
website
Dual Fluid Reactor
at Institute for Solid-State Nuclear Physics
Dual Fluid Reactor - IFK
- All-in-one PDF summary of the concept {{Nuclear fission reactors Liquid metal fast reactors Nuclear power reactor types

Design

History

References

Further reading

External links