CFD simulation of xenon removal by helium bubble sparging in molten salt

Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) designs promise exceptional passive safety, fuel utilization and sustainability. Removal of problematic fission products such as Xenon will enable precise and flexible dynamic control of reactor power level, which can significantly improve commercial relevance of MSR designs, and correspondingly reduce investment risk. One of the Xenon removal methods is inertial gas sparging, which has been roughly investigated during the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment. The current research is an effort to further develop this method, with the help of computational fluid dynamics techniques. Eulerian-Eulerian two fluid model coupled with species transportation is chosen in the simulation. Simulation results with different material properties and boundary conditions are compared with each other. According to the research, high gas flow rate and high molten salt temperature have a positive effect to the Xenon removal process. However, further experiment data and better modelling of closure laws are needed for the design of a Xenon removal device.