Re:Ford Nucleon - a nuclear-powered concept car from 1958
by iyulaev on Monday November 05, 2012 @03:37PM
(#4745680)
The MSRs use molten salts in the sense of ionic compounds, not in the sense of NaCl. They're talking about uranium flouride or liquid flouride thorium.
Re:Ford Nucleon - a nuclear-powered concept car from 1958
by stickfigure on Monday November 05, 2012 @05:14PM
(#4746096)
...which is one of the challenges of MSRs. Long-term high-temperature exposure to corrosive flourine salts is a not-completely-solved materials problem.
I guess you could theoretically pull salt out of the water, but there is no telling what impurities may be left. Reverse-osmotic water filtering makes water so pure that it supposedly extracts minerals back out of your bones and teeth, so impurities are no concern when it used as an exchange fluid.