Steady-State Coupled Calculations (Serpent-GeN-FOAM) Applied to Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR)

The Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR) represents a significant innovation within the Generation IV nuclear reactor systems, distinguished by its use of molten salt as both fuel and coolant. This study presents a methodology for performing steady-state coupled neutronics and thermal-hydraulics (TH) calculations for the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR) using Monte Carlo (MC) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques. The reactor was fed with fuel salt using LiF as base salt, thorium (232Th) as a fertile material and 233U as fissile material. Uncertainty quantification was performed using an extended Grid Convergence Index (GCI) method. The extended Grid Convergence Index (GCI) method was applied to quantify uncertainties in temperature, velocity, and power density profiles. The results highlight the significance of coupled convergence, particularly for the power density field, and reveal lateral recirculation and hot spot formation in the reactor core. The noise reduction techniques applied to the MC simulations effectively smoothed power density profiles, reducing statistical uncertainty.