Abstract There is a long-standing and growing interest in Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) mainly because of their potential advantages in terms of safety, sustainable fuel cycle, and the high melting and boiling points of salt which allow operations at high temperatures and atmospheric pressure with potential merits in terms of cost. A key objective of MSRs is to have a life-cycle cost advantage over other energy sources. Leveraging a systematic literature review, this paper firstly provides an overview of “what we know” about MSR economics and finance following two main streams: scientific and industrial literature. Secondly, this paper highlights “what we should know” about the economics and finance of MSRs, suggesting a research agenda. The literature is very scarce and focuses on MSR overnight capital cost estimations and the comparison between MSR cost of electricity and other energy sources. Cost estimations need to be more transparent and independently assessed. Furthermore, there is no peer-reviewed literature on MSR financing, only claims from vendors.

中文翻译：

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熔盐反应堆的经济和财务

摘要 对熔盐反应堆 (MSR) 的兴趣由来已久且日益增长，主要是因为它们在安全性、可持续燃料循环以及盐的高熔点和沸点方面具有潜在优势，允许在高温和大气压下运行。在成本方面具有潜在优势。MSR 的一个关键目标是比其他能源具有生命周期成本优势。利用系统的文献综述，本文首先概述了关于 MSR 经济学和金融学的“我们所知道的”两个主要流派：科学文献和工业文献。其次，本文重点介绍了 MSR 的经济和金融方面的“我们应该了解的内容”，并提出了研究议程。文献非常稀少，重点是 MSR 隔夜资本成本估算以及 MSR 电力和其他能源成本之间的比较。成本估算需要更加透明和独立评估。此外，没有关于 MSR 融资的同行评审文献，只有供应商的声明。