You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
alternatehistory.com
Oct. 9, 1968
October 9, 1968
Molten Salt Reactor Experiment Achieves Criticality
Two years after the Fermi nuclear disaster, research is ongoing to find a safer, yet economically practical, atomic reactor. Scientists at the Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee have announced that an experimental new reactor has achieved criticality. The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), as it is called, uses an innovative design very different from the one used at Fermi. Instead of having coolant circulating around the nuclear fuel, the molten salts act as both a carrier for the fuel and a coolant. MSRE is the world's first reactor to operate on U-233, an isotope of uranium. [1]
AEC Chairman Alvin Weinberg is proud of the accomplishment, and calls MSRE the “Mighty Smooth Running Experiment.” To prove the safety of the new method, he showed a crowd of reporters several barrels that contain processed salt carrier and spent fuel that do not require radiological protection. [2] “Here we had a high-temperature fluid-fuel reactor that operated reliably and, even in the primitive embodiment represented by MSRE, had remarkably low fuel costs,” said Weinberg. [3]