Terrestrial Energy, a venture based in Canada, is developing a small modular reactor (SMR) design that would take the long-studied concept of the molten salt reactor (MSR) out of the laboratory and into industry within a decade. The review of the history of MSR development, provided below, will prepare the reader to understand the commercial rationale behind Terrestrial Energy's reactor design, called the Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR). MSRs were originally developed as potential power sources for aircraft. A land-based test reactor built in 1954 operated successfully at up to 860 °C. This work led to a major program aimed at electricity-producing breeder reactors, carried out from the late 1950s to mid-1970s at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). A key facility was the 8-MWt Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), which ran from 1965 to 1969.
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