One current concept in dealing with both of these problems, as shown in the HYLIFE-II baseline design, is to use a " waterfall " of FLiBe, a molten mix of fluoride salts of lithium and beryllium, which both protect the chamber from neutrons and carry away heat.

The molten mixture of cryolite, alumina, aluminium fluoride is then electrolyzed by passing a direct electric current through it.

The stirring of the molten aluminium in each cell typically increases its performance, but the purity of the aluminium is reduced, since it gets mixed with small amounts of cryolite and aluminium fluoride.

The molten weld and the arc zone are protected from atmospheric contamination by being “ submerged ” under a blanket of granular fusible flux consisting of lime, silica, manganese oxide, calcium fluoride, and other compounds.

The blast-chamber was then to be partially filled with molten fluoride salts to a depth of 30 m ( 100 ft ), a " waterfall " would be initiated by pumping the salt to the top of the chamber and letting it fall to the bottom, and while being surrounded by this falling coolant, a 1-kiloton fission bomb would be detonated ; this would be repeated every 45 minutes.

Single fluid fluoride molten salt reactors feature fissile, fertile and actinide radioisotopes in molecular bonds with the fluoride coolant.

In many designs the nuclear fuel is dissolved in the molten fluoride salt coolant as uranium tetrafluoride ( UF < sub > 4 </ sub >).

The ARE used molten fluoride salt NaF-ZrF < sub > 4 </ sub >- UF < sub > 4 </ sub > ( 53-41-6 mol %) as fuel, was moderated by beryllium oxide ( BeO ), used liquid sodium as a secondary coolant, and had a peak temperature of 860 ° C.

The MSRE was a 7. 4 MW < sub > th </ sub > test reactor simulating the neutronic " kernel " of a type of inherently safe epithermal thorium molten salt breeder reactor called the Liquid fluoride thorium reactor.

Molten salt-fueled reactors, such as the liquid fluoride thorium reactor ( LFTR ), are different than molten salt-cooled reactors that do not dissolve nuclear fuel in the coolant.

Some compounds, such as the nickel-based Hastelloy-N were engineered specifically for the molten salt reactor experiment and proved highly resistant to corrosion by molten fluoride salts .< ref > DeVan, Jackson H. " EFFECT OF ALLOYING ADDITIONS ON CORROSION BEHAVIOR OF NICKEL-MOLYBDENUM ALLOYS IN FUSED FLUORIDE MIXTURES.

Not all reactors need to be shut down for refueling ; for example, pebble bed reactors, RBMK reactors, molten salt reactors, Magnox, AGR and CANDU reactors allow fuel to be shifted through the reactor while it is running.

# Debris bed formation – " When the temperature in the core reaches about, molten control materials will flow to and solidify in the space between the lower parts of the fuel rods where the temperature is comparatively low.

In addition, molten carbonate and solid oxide fuel cells using natural gas, such as the Fuel Cell Energy Co, VERSA power Co. and Bloom Energy Server, have recently become a distributed energy resource.

This was an alumino-thermic process in which a powder ' portion ' was ignited ; the aluminium was the fuel and a metallurgically appropriate composition of molten steel descended into the gap between the rail ends, contained in refractory moulds.

Other historically successful combined cycles have used hot cycles with mercury vapor turbines, magnetohydrodynamic generators or molten carbonate fuel cells, with steam plants for the low temperature " bottoming " cycle.

Proponents of nuclear fuel cycles which aim to consume all their actinides by fission, such as the Integral Fast Reactor and molten salt reactor, use this fact to claim that within 200 years, their wastes are no more radioactive than the original uranium ore.

* The fuel and reactor internals may melt ; if the melted configuration remains critical, the molten mass will continue to generate heat, possibly melting its way down through the bottom of the reactor.

# The time required for the molten fuel to breach the primary pressure boundary.

The time required for the molten metal of the core to breach the primary pressure boundary ( in light water reactors this is the pressure vessel ; in CANDU and RBMK reactors this is the array of pressurized fuel channels ; in PHWR reactors like Atucha I, it will be a double barrier of channels and the pressure vessel ) will depend on temperatures and boundary materials.

MCFCs are high-temperature fuel cells that use an electrolyte composed of a molten carbonate salt mixture suspended in a porous, chemically inert ceramic matrix of beta-alumina solid electrolyte ( BASE ).

* molten carbonate fuel cells distributed generation challenge

Some reactors, such as the liquid metal and molten salt variants, use Thorium-232 fuel which is more abundant in nature than Uranium isotopes and requires no enrichment.

A steam explosion ( also called a fuel-coolant interaction, FCI ) is a violent boiling or flashing of water into steam, occurring when water is either superheated, rapidly heated by fine hot debris produced within it, or the interaction of molten metals ( e. g., Fuel-Coolant Interaction of molten nuclear-reactor fuel rods with water in a nuclear reactor core following a core-meltdown ).

Two possibilities are the ejection at high pressure of molten fuel into the containment, causing rapid heating ; or an in-vessel steam explosion causing ejection of a missile ( e. g., the upper head ) into, and through, the containment.

Less onerous but still significant would be that the molten mass of fuel and reactor core melts through the floor of the reactor building and reaches ground water ; a steam explosion might occur, but the debris would probably be contained, and would in fact, being dispersed, probably be more easily coolable.

Though potentially damaging, they are usually less energetic than events in which the hot (" fuel ") phase is molten and so can be finely fragmented within the volatile (" coolant ") phase.

MHD generators are now practical for fossil fuels, but have been overtaken by other, less expensive technologies, such as combined cycles in which a gas turbine's or molten carbonate fuel cell's exhaust heats steam for steam turbine.

A molten salt reactor ( MSR ) is a class of nuclear fission reactors in which the primary coolant, or even the fuel itself is a molten salt mixture.

Solid fuel designs rely on ceramic fuel dispersed in a graphite matrix, with the molten salt providing low pressure, high temperature cooling.

Thus, the compact core makes the molten salt design particularly suitable for the thorium fuel cycle.

When a molten metal is mixed with another substance, there are two mechanisms that can cause an alloy to form, called atom exchange and the interstitial mechanism.

Ionically bonded crystals can form upon solidification of salts, either from a molten fluid or upon crystallization from a solution.

When molten, the salt sodium chloride can be electrolyzed to yield metallic sodium and gaseous chlorine.

Sponge gadolinium can be produced by reducing molten GdCl < sub > 3 </ sub > with an appropriate metal at temperatures below 1312 ° C ( melting point of Gd ) in a reduced pressure.

Although galvanization can be done with electrochemical and electrodeposition processes, the most common method in current use is hot-dip galvanization, in which steel parts are submerged in a bath of molten zinc.

Ionic compounds, if molten or dissolved, can conduct electricity because the ions in these conditions are free to move and carry electrons between the anode and the cathode.

This is then placed into a hand-held mould and a piece of type, or " sort ", is cast by filling the mould with molten type-metal ; this cools almost at once, and the resulting piece of type can be removed from the mould.

Also, pure lanthanum can be produced by electrolysis of molten mixture of anhydrous LaCl < sub > 3 </ sub > and NaCl or KCl at elevated temperatures.

Otherwise, metallic bonding can be very strong, even in molten metals, such as Gallium.

Flux and slag can provide a secondary service after the reduction step is complete: They provide a molten cover on the purified metal, preventing it from coming into contact with oxygen while it is still hot enough to oxidise readily.

In principle, all types of liquids can behave as solvents: liquid noble gases, molten metals, molten salts, molten covalent networks, and molecular liquids.

Contact with molten solder can cause ' solder embrittlement ' of materials, a type of liquid metal embrittlement.

If so, they pointed out, this comet dust can survive entry in partially molten form, accounting for the unusual attributes of the micrometeorites collected in Antarctica, which do not resemble the larger meteorites known to originate from asteroids.

It almost always has a fine-grained mineral texture due to the molten rock cooling too quickly for large mineral crystals to grow, although it can sometimes be porphyritic, containing the larger crystals formed prior to the extrusion that brought the lava to the surface, embedded in a finer-grained matrix.

Note that molten salts can be electrolytes as well.

Intense heat focused on a small spot can be used to cut through metal or weld metal components together both by melting metal from the components, and by injecting molten metal from the thermite reaction itself.

Small streams of molten iron released in the reaction can travel considerable distances and may melt through metal containers, igniting their contents ( see images ).

The light from its gaze can instantly forge molten gold into solid gold statues.

It can be pushed and tugged while molten for certain effects.

For distinct textures the metal cylinder can be imprinted with a pattern that is pressed into the molten glass as it passes through the rollers.

A variety of heaters can be used for zone melting, with their most important characteristic being the ability to form short molten zones that move slowly and uniformly through the ingot.

The very large electric current passing through the electrolytic cells generates a powerful magnetic field, and this can stir the molten aluminium with magneto-hydrodynamic forces in properly-designed cells.

If the cells are designed for no stirring, they can be operated with static pools of molten aluminium so that the impurities either rise to the top of the metallic aluminium, or else sink to the bottom, leaving high-purity aluminium in the middle.