A feasibility study of a thorium fueled molten salt micro modular subcritical reactor using an electron accelerator

Abstract

We present a design for a small subcritical molten salt thorium breeder reactor driven by an electron accelerator. Such a reactor could provide a safe and simple power source fuelled by thorium, without generating long-lived minor actinides. We use both Geant4 and MCNPX simulations to study the production of photons and photoneutrons, the criticality and the breeding in a simple conceptual design. We show that the concept is on the edge of viability.