AMBIDEXTER nuclear energy complex: a practicable approach for rekindling nuclear energy application

Aiming at one of the decisive alternatives for long-term perspectives of the nuclear power, an integral and closed nuclear energy system concept is proposed; namely, the Advanced Molten-salt Break-even Inherently-safe Dual-missioning Experimental and Test Reactor (AMBIDEXTER) nuclear energy complex. This essentially comprises two mutually independent circuits of the radiation/material transport and the heat/energy conversion, centered at the integral reactor assembly, which enables one to utilize maximum benefits of nuclear energy under minimum risks of nuclear radiation. The entire reactor system resides in a thin and large Hastelloy vessel, the internal part of which is divided into a number of equipment compartments with neither connection pipings nor active valves necessary. As the reactor operates at very low FP inventory throughout its designed lifetime and there is no primary heat transport pipings outside the reactor vessel, significant release of radioactive materials due to any equipment failure should be incredible. The nuclear-thermalhydraulic characteristics of the molten ThF4-233UF4 fuel salt extend the self-sustainability of the AMBIDEXTER fuel cycle to enhance the resource security and safeguard transparency. While maintaining the break-even conversion ratio criterion, a flexible fuel management strategy using a certain choice of denaturants should improve its own proliferation-resistance characteristics. As the core technologies associated with developing the AMBIDEXTER concept are mostly available in commercialized forms at present, investigating the integral performance of the concept should be the prime research topic in ongoing 250 MW th prototype design studies.