Improved spent fuel handling in a molten salt nuclear reactor

摘要

A method is disclosed to move spent fuel tubes containing molten salt fuel in a molten salt nuclear reactor without lifting the part of the fuel tube containing fuel salt out from the coolant pool. The method can either involve using tubes of asymmetric diameter, i.e. narrower at the top and wider at the bottom, are raised to a level where the part of the fuel tube containing molten fuel salt remains submerged within the coolant but is high enough to move laterally between the upper narrow regions of the fuel tube array or where fuel tubes, or assemblies thereof, are removed from the periphery of the fuel tube array with the resulting gap in the array being migrated in such a way as to allow fresh fuel tubes to be added to the periphery of the array while ensuring an acceptably uniform distribution of fission rate is maintained across the array of fuel tubes.