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The SALT Research Group

UC Berkeley Nuclear Engineering Department

  • | Home
  • | People
    • Raluca Scarlat
    • Sara Mastromarino
    • Niv Moran
    • Lorenzo Vergari
    • Haley Williams
    • Sasha Kennedy
    • Ryan Hayes
    • Christian M. Sclafani, MEng., B.S.E.
    • Michael Borrello
    • Nathanael Gardner
  • | Publications
  • | Projects
    • ThorCon Corrosion Project
    • NEUP – High Temperature Molten Salt Reactor Pump Development
    • NEUP – IRP Molten Salt Reactor Test Bed with Neutron Irradiation
    • Speciation of Light Elements in Molten Salts
    • MS Round Robin 1.0
    • FUTURE EFRC
    • Graphite and Tritium Studies in Molten Fluoride Salts
  • | Courses
  • | Beryllium Safety
  • | News & Events
    • | Open House Nov. 5, 2021
    • | Chemical Sensors Workshop 2020
    • | Molten Salt Bootcamp 2019

Molten Salt Reactor Test Bed with Neutron Irradiation

PI:

  • Prof. Charles Forsberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Collaborators:

  • Prof. Raluca Scarlat, University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
  • Dr. David Carpenter (MIT)
  • Prof. Ayman Hawari, North Carolina State University (NCSU)
  • Dr. Kevin Robb, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

This Integrated Research Project (IRP) stems from a collaboration among UC Berkeley (the SALT group), MIT, NCSU and ORNL.

This IRP will build a general purpose loop at the MIT research reactor where salt flowing through the loop is irradiated by neutrons from the reactor. The neutrons interact with the salt to create various radionuclides in the salt including tritium, helium and noble metal fission products—depending upon the salt being irradiated. The loop creates conditions similar to those in the primary coolant circuit of salt-cooled reactors, to allow experimenters to (1) understand salt behavior in a reactor, (2) test redox control and other chemistry control systems designed to minimize corrosion, (3) test salt cleanup systems, (4) test instrumentation systems and other equipment for salt reactors, and (5) collect data to validate models of radionuclide transport in salt systems.

In the scope of the project, the SALT research group will develop systems to measure and control salt chemistry and tritium transport in the loop.

Tritium uptake mechanisms and sites in graphite, from (Vergari and Scarlat, 2021)

SALT Group Researchers

Lorenzo Vergari, Michael Borrello, Sasha Kennedy

Capabilities

CEM Microwave digester in the glovebox train.

High temperature stage for electrochemistry and spectroscopy, mounted on polarized light microscope

Thin film sensor for high-throughput electrochemical experimentation

Publications

Vergari, L., & Scarlat, R. O. Kinetics and Transport of Hydrogen in Graphite at High Temperature and the Effects of Oxidation, Irradiation and Isotopics. Journal of Nuclear Materials, 153142. (2021)
Vergari, L., & Scarlat, R. O. The impact of neutron irradiation, graphite oxidation and fluorination on tritium uptake into and desorption from graphite in molten salt environments. Fusion Engineering and Design, 168, 112627. (2021)
Vergari, L., & Scarlat, R. O. Thermodynamics of hydrogen in graphite at high temperature and the effects of oxidation, irradiation and isotopics. Journal of Nuclear Materials, 152797. (2021)

Talks and Presentations

L. Vergari, R.O Scarlat. Thermodynamics, transport and kinetics of hydrogen in graphite in high temperature nuclear reactors. INGSM-21. NC State University. September 27-30, 2021

L. Vergari, R.O. Scarlat. High-temperature interactions between hydrogen isotopes and graphite and their relevance to tritium management in high-temperature nuclear reactors. 3rd Asia Pacific Symposium on Tritium Science (APSOT-3). University of Toyama, JP. November 3-6, 2020

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Engineering events

    • Library Exhibit for the 30th Anniversary of the American Cultures Requirement

      July 5, 2022

      Morrison Library Doe Library

      What could be so important that faculty on campus would agree on creating a new campus-wide requirement? So asked Professor Bill Simmons, first director for the Center for the Study of American Cultures (from 1988-1994). His answer - the teaching and learning of race, racism, and anti-racism in our institutions, communities, local and transnational lives - bringing into life the nation’s first...

    • Science at Cal - Uncovering the Past: Using Genetic Data to Understand Human History and Evolution

      July 9, 2022

      2050 Valley Life Sciences Building

      Recent advances in sequencing DNA have opened up new opportunities to use genetic data to improve our understanding of human history and evolution.

    • Dissertation Talk: Parallel Algorithms for De Novo Genome Assembly via Sparse Linear Algebra

      July 22, 2022

      306 Soda Hall

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