Abstract

This study addressed the problem of measuring the total mass of molten salt in a nuclear system such as a nuclear fuel electrorefiner or a molten salt reactor. In theory, soluble tracers can be added to an unknown amount of salt. Measurement of the tracer concentration after allowing time to homogenize the salt and elemental analysis can be used to calculate the total mass of salt in the system. In this study, the mass of a molten salt mixture of equimolar NaCl-CaCl₂ was measured using this method for several sequential additions of the tracer salt. Two different tracers (CeCl₃ and KCl) with known mass were used in determining the total mass of NaCl-CaCl₂ salt in a crucible at 650°C. By limiting the method to tracer concentrations higher than 1.1 wt%, the average mass determination error was 2.39% and 1.82% for CeCl₃ and KCl, respectively. Mass estimations were mostly high by this amount compared to the actually known mass.

摘要

这项研究解决了在核燃料电解精炼机或熔盐反应堆等核系统中测量熔盐总质量的问题。理论上，可溶性示踪剂可以添加到未知量的盐中。在使盐均匀化后测量示踪剂浓度和元素分析可用于计算系统中盐的总质量。在这项研究中，使用这种方法测量了等摩尔 NaCl-CaCl _{2的熔融盐混合物的质量，用于多次连续添加示踪盐。}使用已知质量的两种不同示踪剂（CeCl ₃和 KCl）来确定 NaCl-CaCl _{2的总质量}盐在 650°C 的坩埚中。通过将该方法限制为示踪剂浓度高于 1.1 wt%，CeCl ₃和 KCl 的平均质量测定误差分别为 2.39% 和 1.82%。与实际已知的质量相比，质量估计大多高出这个数量。