[jmcmahon443]

Stainless steel. Could you go into more depth about who's making your pipes and fittings? What surface treatments will you be using, etc? Will you be putting a cooling jacket, insulation, or anything over the pipes? Very interesting in the metallurgy you're using since it appears to be the BIGGEST problem of the MSRE at Oakridge.

Also, what happened to that experimental reactor? Didn't Obama send it to Norway or something?

[LarsJorgensen]

The challenge with metallurgy for MSRE was two fold. First was the neutron interaction with nickle forming helium that migrated to the grain boundaries. We avoid this problem altogether by having a single fluid design with a protective shield of B4C absorbing neutrons before they hit the wall.

The second problem was with tellerium penetrating the Hastalloy and weakening it at the grain boundaries. This isn't a problem with stainless steel.

The stainless steel planned is SS316 which is available from multiple sources.

The primary loop does not have insulation surrounding it but it does have a 1m thick graphite reflector to bounce most of the neutrons back to the core then a layer of B4C to absorb the rest before they get to the vessel.

The MSRE was shutdown decades ago and recently had its fuel salt removed. The vessel and piping are still in Oak Ridge inside its concrete silo.

[jmcmahon443]

Great, grain boundaries are really what it gets down to.

I only have two things to say: 1.) Good luck testing and gathering data on these ideas. You'll need it. 2.) Are you hiring mechanical engineers?