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I keep reading about this amazing claim such as quoted here:

And as it was described in the article, there the passive "walk away" safety system using the freeze plug. This was routinely used in the Oak Ridge MSR experiment, where they would literally shut off the power to the reactor on Friday, letting the fuel pour in to the drain tank, built for maximizing passive cooling, where it would cool and solidify during the weekend. On Monday they would just turn on heaters around the tank, and then pump it back in to the reactor and continue.

Did that really happen?

Cees Timmerman
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1 Answers1

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That never happened, according to Dick Engel and Syd Ball explaining their involvement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory's thorium molten salt research:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENH-jd6NhRc&t=12m49s

  • This story of closing off the heat exchangers: that never happened, right? You didn't switch it off for the weekend?
  • No.
ChrisW
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Cees Timmerman
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    A better answer would quote/extract some relevant sentences from that half-hour video; or at least provide a time-stamp to say which part of the video to listen to. – ChrisW Oct 02 '13 at 11:13
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    @ChrisW the `&t=12m49s`in the link is the timestamp (presumably): [this link should also work](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENH-jd6NhRc&feature=player_detailpage#t=769) – ratchet freak Oct 02 '13 at 13:18
  • @ratchetfreak You're right: my mistake. – ChrisW Oct 02 '13 at 13:20