Request for <sup>35</sup> Cl(n,p) reaction cross-section measurements and re-evaluations from the standpoint of molten chloride salt fast reactor design
Yoshihisa TAHARA, Haruka Hirano, Satoshi Chiba, Hiroyasu Mochizuki, Tatsuya Katabuchi
Abstract
A molten chloride salt fast reactor with inherent safety features is being studied in order to utilize spent fuel discharged from light-water reactors effectively and to reduce environmental burdens. A hard neutron spectrum is required to achieve the transmutation of TRU efficiently, which can be realized by using a molten chloride salt. However, it was found that the criticality analysis shows a large difference of 2%Δk among the effective multiplication factors (keff) obtained using several evaluated nuclear data libraries. A sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the cause of the difference in keff and it was clarified that the difference of 2%Δk/k reactivity was due to the difference in cross sections of the 35Cl(n,p)35S reaction. Such a large difference in keff makes a reliable core design difficult and strongly affects important core characteristics such as the TRU transmutation rate, conversion ratio, and so on. Therefore, this paper has been prepared to make a strong request for measurements and re-evaluations of the (n,p) cross section of 35Cl.