Terrestrial Energy, a Canadian advanced nuclear reactor company, is on its way to making their innovative design a reality.
The key advantage of this GenIV reactor design is that it uses molten salt to carry the fuel as well as cool the system. At first glance, that might seem odd. But molten salt, with the uranium dissolved in it, can operate at low-pressure and doesn’t need chemical or mechanical driving forces which can cause problems.
The IMSR can be maintained and operated with relative simplicity, important for an industrial reactor with potential for global applications. The power plant can be sized from small to large. The reactor is in a permanently sealed modular core-unit, that includes multiple redundant heat exchangers and pumps.
It cannot melt down.
