Theses and Dissertations Collection

This work evaluates several neutronics-related performance characteristics of a proposed molten salt micro-reactor. The Molten Salt Nuclear Battery is a liquid fuel molten salt system designed to be entirely self-contained, circulate the fuel and salt through natural convection, and provide 10 MW of thermal power for up to 10 years of continuous operation. Areas of investigation include candidate neutron reflecting and absorbing materials, control rod design and optimization, criticality control, neutron flux profile characterization, reactor operation and fuel burnup, fission product production, and radioactive dose in close proximity following shutdown. The primary means of investigation was simulation with the MCNP and ORIGEN codes. The analysis shows that the proposed design can meet the desired operational parameters and that control of the reactor is achievable with the optimized control rods, while also quantifying other essential nuclear characteristics. Assumptions and simplifications used in the simulations and the avenues of further research are discussed.