Design and Optimization of the Components of an Accelerator Driven Thorium-Fueled Molten Salt Loop Using Mcnp6/Serpent2 Monte Carlo Methods

Abstract

This thesis summarizes an intensive computational study to a proton accelerator-driven thorium-fueled molten salt reactor, including sensitivity analysis, parametric studies, and design & optimization for selected components of the molten salt loop facility using MCNP6 code, and results benchmark using SERPENT2 Monte Carlo method. The accelerator-driven thorium molten saltreactor is located at the thermal-hydraulics laboratory at Texas A & M University, it is composed of two parts; the proton accelerator coupled with a thorium molten salt test loop. The proton accelerator was used as a neutron generator via spallation reaction, and the molten salt loop which confines and circulates the thorium molten salt. The main goal behind this research is to impose the required boundary conditions on molten salt flow and induce fast fission events of232Th within the molten salt in a safe, subcritical nuclear facility. The research consists of 3 parts, MCNP6simulations, SERPENT2 simulations, and MCNP6-SERPENT2 benchmark, simulations are di-vided into phases, where each phase aims to accomplish a certain task. MCNP6 simulations were run with a license through the inspect Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) cluster, and SER-PENT2 simulations were run on a local computer with a license that was provided from the code developer.