Are we going to be Used for more than Uranium purification or enrichment?
Will this be Silex only???
Capture and reuse of isotopically enriched chlorine and lithium
salts may also be desirable.
The patent below describes a method for removing certain isotopes that are undesirable in molten salt reactors due to them being able to produce hydrogen in the reactor, something that could be disastrous iof allowed to occur.
This patent has expired but it may be still necessary and with a newer type if laser separation?
https://patents.google.com/patent/US4025406A/en
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnuen.2024.1335980/full
The other aspect of salt availability that must be considered is that MSRs depend on having a carrier and/or coolant salt that is transparent to neutron flux. Consequently, fluoride salt reactors that have lithium-based carriers need salt that is enriched in
7Li to reduce the production of
3H through activation (
Harrison et al., 2016). Chloride-based carrier salts need
enrichment in 37Cl to reduce the production of
36Cl, a long-lived isotope that complicates waste-form disposal, and other activation byproducts such as sulfur
(20min delay)