International Thorium Molten-Salt Forum
(English page) |
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We are observer member of GIF-MSR Steering
Committee, since 2006 |
"International Thorium Molten-Salt Forum" is a Non-Profit-Organization, which
was registered to the local government
of
Japan in October, 2008.
The members are researchers and engineers
besides citizens, who are interested in the
Molten Salt Reactor and related thorium cycles.
At this moment, there are about 50 members
among 13 countries not only in Japan but
also USA, France, Russia, Ukraine, Czech,
China, and so on. There are other about 100
domestic people who are interested in or
supporting occasionally.
We will proceed research and design
besides
education, in order to promote the
Molten
Salt Reactor and related thorium cycles,
which is described shortly at the end
of
this page. |
Question or comments to click here (send
an e-mail to us)..
 The first textbook on Molten Salt Reactors
was published!!!
Book title: Molten Salt Reactors and Thorium Energy
This is the only one textbook on MSR. It
covers almost all activities in the current
world on MSR and related issues.
Many members of our Forum contributed to
this book, and about 200 pages are written
by Japan side.
Total pages : 840,, Published in July,
2017,
Publisher; Woodhead Publishing (Elsevier),
Editor: Thomas James Dolan, Price:
USD:353
Link to AMAZON（Click here) |
|
1. Introduction
2. Electricity Production
3. Other MSR Applications
4. Reactor Physics
5. Kinetics and Dynamics
6. Thermal Hydraulics
7. Materials
8. Chemical Processing of Liquid Fuel
9. Environment, waste, and resources
10. Nonproliferation and safeguards aspects
of the MSR fuel cycle
11. Liquid fuel, thermal neutron-spectrum
reactors
12.Fast-spectrum, liquid-fueled reactors
13. Solid fuel salt-cooled reactors
14. Thorium Molten Salt Reactor |
15. Accelerator Driven Systems
16. Fusion fission hybrids
17. Thorium molten salt reactor nuclear energy
system
18. Integral Molten Salt Reactor
19. ThorCon Reactor
20. Safety assessment of the molten salt
fast reactor
21. Stable salt fast reactor
22. Transatomic Power Reacto
23. Copenhagen Atomics waste burner
24. Molten salt thermal wasteburner
25. Dual-fluid reactor
26. Worldwide activities
27. Issues and conclusions |
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English Book was published
"Molten Salts Chemistry: From Lab to Applications" was published by the Elsevier on September
2013.
One of the chapter in this book is
"Nuclear Energy Based on Thorium Molten Salt", which is written by the president of ITMSF:
Ritsuo Yoshioka.
This chapter describes the latest design
results of MSR-FUJI, besides the development
history of MSR, recent development status
in the world, and fissile material production
system.
Hard-covered book or Kindle edition
can be
purchased at AMAZON Book Store (Click here) |
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Official Presentation to Japan Atomic Energy
Committee
On May 9th, 2913, at the 17th Committee,
we gave a formal presentation on Molten
Salt
Reactor Development in foreign countries
and in Japan.
Place: Tokyo, J-AEC head office,
Time: May 9th, 2013, 10:30AM-12:00
Title：「Thorium Utilization Technology and its Research
and Development」(in Japanese)
Presenter: R. Yoshioka & M. Kinoshita。
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11th-seminar by International Thorium Molten-Salt
Forum (ITMSF)"
On April 20th of 2013, the ITMSF Spring seminar
was held at Tokyo.
This year, we invited Dr. Xu Hongjie of SINAP
to hear his lecture on Chinese TMSR program.
Dr. Xu was an ex-director of SINAP(Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics), and now he is a head of TMSR center in
SINAP.
About 150 people, mostly public(citizens),
including major newspapers and magazines,
joined our seminar. There were very active
discussions in the seminar.
1)Keynote speech : Dr. Akito Arima (ex-president
of Tokyo University)
2)Lecture on TMSR and recent world trend:
Ritsuo Yoshioka(president of ITMSF)
3)Lecture on Chinese TMSR program: Dr. Xu
Hongjie
...Chairman: Dr. Kazuro Furukawa (son of
great Kazuo Furukawa)
...Japanese translation: Dr. Motoyasu Kinoshita
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TMSR Workshop in Korea
On January 29th to 30th of 2013, the International
Workshop on Thorium Molten Salt Reactor"
was held at Korea.
This workshop was held at UNIST (Ulsan National
Institute of Science and Technology), and
professor Dong-Seong SOHN of UNIST organized
this Workshop.
About 30 people attended this workshop from
USA, Russia, Czech, France and Japan(R. Yoshioka).
More people were invited to this WS, but
WS notice was too short, and attendance was
not big. But they are starting TMSR study
in Korea, and its future is expected.
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Conference on Molten Salts in Nuclear Technology
(CMSNT-2013) in India
From 9th to 11th January 2013, Conference
on Molten Salts in Nuclear Technology (CMSNT-2013)”
was held at BARC（Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre） in Mumbai, India.
150 people attended, and hot discussion was
talked.
Our Forum (ITMSF) was invited , and we submitted
a paper and gave a presentation here.
India has a longest history on thorium cycles,
because India produces very little amount
of uranium but produces large amount of thorium,
and same situation as China.
So, India has been studying thorium application
on solid fuel long time. But, this Conference
revealed that they have been studying MSR
together, of course not so widely as solid
fuel.
Conference web-site is as follows, including
each presentation slides.. http://moltensaltindia.org/
Our full paper(pdf) is shown below..
★Ritsuo Yoshioka, Koshi Mitachi, "Thorium
Molten Salt Nuclear Energy Synergetic System
(THORIMS-NES)"
http://homepage2.nifty.com/TAMACHAN/CMSNT
Yoshioka 20130109.pdf
The following English web site (blog) by
Dr. David LeBlanc shows the hot atmosphere
of the Conference. http://www.the-weinberg-foundation.org/ |
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Thorium Energy Conference (ThEC12)" at Shanghai 2012
Thorium Energy Conference (ThEC12) was held
in Shanghai/China from October 29th to November
1st 2012.
Our Forum (ITMSF) presented papers
in this
conference. Not only Japanese members
but
also several foreign members of our
Forum
presented or attended this conference.
"Guidelines for MSR Accident Analysis"(by
R. Yoshioka, Y. Shimazu, K. Mitachi)
was
presented in this Conference.
The slides
and full paper are compiled and
can be downloaded
here.
http://thec12.csp.escience.cn/dct/page/65579
(Most of other papers can be downloaded here
above.) |
The details of the Conference are shown
in
the following web-site. http://thec12.csp.escience.cn/dct/page/1
Total 120 people attended (40 from overseas
and 80 from China).
Among 38 papers, half was MSR (Molten Salt
Reactor) and the rest are solid Thorium fuel
topics and ADS, and so on.
China has started MSR and ADS development
since 2011, and this is the first open
conference
to know their progress.
The Conference was very well hosted by the
SINAP (Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics).
Most of presentations are uploaded
on Youtube
as follows (Or search 'ThEC12) at Youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=+ThEC12&oq=+ThEC12&gs_l=youtube.12...0.0.0.1743.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1ac. |
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| 10th-seminar by International Thorium Molten-Salt
Forum (ITMSF)" |
The first local seminar was held at Shizuoka-city
on July 21st, 2012.
More than 120 people attended, and most audience
were citizens in this district. There were
very active discussions, because there are
6-reactors in this district.
１）"Expectations on Thorium Energy"
by Dr. Akito Arima (video message)
２）"Lecture on TMSR and recent world
trend": by Ritsuo Yoshioka
3）"Design results of TMSR" by
Dr. Koshi Mitachi
|
9th-seminar by International Thorium Molten-Salt
Forum (ITMSF)"
was held an open seminar, and more than 100
audience made hot discussions.
Date : 2012-April-21st (Saturday) ,13:10-17:00
Agenda:
1) Lecture on Molten-Salt and FLiBe, by prof. Yasuhiko Itoh of Doshisha-univ.
2) Molten Salt Reactor and Related Foreign Movement, by Ritsuo Yoshioka, president of ITMSF
3) Study of TRU Burner MSR, by Dr. Yasuo Hirose
4) Molten Salt Loop Issue, by Dr. Motoyasu Kinoshita, CRIEPI
5) What Is Accelerators? ,by prof. Kazuro Furukawa of High-Energy-Accelerator-Research-Organization. |
Admission Fee:1,000-yen. Place: Tokyo, Akihabara.Maximum
capacity: 100. |
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Notice from ITMSF : "New President was
assigned"
The directors' board of this Forum assigned
Ritsuo Yoshioka as a new president of this Forum.
After 3.11 Fukushima accident, safer
reactors
are really needed, and also Thorium
fuel
cycle is more expected.
So, we will continue the activity to
realize
Molten Salt Reactor, which is what
prof.
Furukawa has strongly desired.
So, we hope your cooperation as before.
2012-Jan.-13
Ritsuo Yoshioka
President
"International Thorium Molten-Salt
Forum"(ITMSF) |
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Dr. Kazuo Furukawa passed away.
This is a very sad notice.
Professor Kazuo Furukawa passed away on December
14th 2011 at age 84. He had a cancer surgery
in last summer, and he once came back. And,
in last October, he gave several lectures
at different seminars (right photo was taken
on October 25th), and also gave lectures
on the Internet TVs, very actively. Since
last November, he was in a hospital in order
to relax his body, but it is a time we have
to say the final words.
I and other staffs will keep promoting
his
will, that is to realize Thorium MSR
on this
world.
We hope your cooperation to this Forum,
same
as before.
Dr. Furukawa's career is shown here (Click
here)
2011-Dec.-14
"International Thorium Molten-Salt
Forum
(ITMSF)"
Ritsuo Yoshioka |
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1st partner site in USA::TEA: Thorium Energy Alliance(click here):
TEA is an educational advocacy
organization
in USA, which is supporting to
proceed the
utilization of thorium energy
mostly in the
Molten Salt Reactor. |
2nd partner site in USA::IThEO(click here):
IThEO is "International
Thorium Energy
Organization", which is
supporting to
proceed the utilization of thorium
energy
mostly in the Molten Salt Reactor. |
3rd partner site in UK:
The Weinberg Foundation in UK.(Click here)
The Weinberg Foundation is a newly created, not-for-profit organization dedicated
to driving the uptake of safe, clean and
affordable energy. |
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Winter 2010 "Thorium Energy Conference"
The 3rd Thorium Energy Conference was
held
in London/UK on October 17th to 20th,
2010.
Our Forum ITMSF presented 3 papers
in this
conference.
Several foreign members of our Forum also
presented/attended this conference.
| Kazuo Furukawa "Thorium Molten Salt Nuclear Energy
Synergetic System" |
| Ritsuo Yoshioka,. "Controllability of MSR-FUJI" |
| Yoichiro Shimazu , "Proposals of a Preliminary Safety Criterion
of MSRs for Abnormal Transients" |
|
| Conference was held at the Faraday Hall of
the Royal Institution, where
Michael Faraday
gave a first lecture, and many
novelists
also gave lectures. |
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6th Seminar by the Forum
In September 2010, the 6th seminar was held
in Tokyo. The following speakers gave
lectures
on MSR and related thorium cycles.
1) "History of MSR design (from
Dr.
LeBlanc's lecture) by R. Yoshioka
2) "Recent movement on MSR"
by
K, Furukawa
3) "MSR using U235 fuel"
by K.
Mitachi, "MSR safety criteria"
by R. Yoshioka |
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5th Seminar by the Forum
In July 2010, the 5th seminar was held
in
Tokyo |
4th Seminar by the Forum
In April 2010, the 4th seminar was
held in
Tokyo. The following teachers gave
lectures
on MSR and related thorium cycles.
1)"Recent Study on MSR-FUJI and
THORIMS-NES",
by K, Furukawa
2)"Reprocessing Experiments of
Thorium
Fuel cycle for MSR" by. N. Satoh
3)"Thorium Energy Conference in
USA",
by R. Yoshioka
4)"Thorium MSR Development in
China",
by X. Xia
........60 people attended and discussed
the subjects deeply. |
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Spring 2010 Thorium Energy Conference
The Second Thorium Energy Alliance
Conference
held in Mountain View, California USA
on
March 29th and 30th 2010.
Our Forum ITMSF presented 3 papers
in this
conference and our slides besides others
one can be seen from the following
site."http://www.thoriumenergyalliance.com/ThoriumSite/Spring2010Conf.htm (click the underlined part)
| Ritsuo Yoshioka, et al. "Molten-Salt Reactor FUJI and Related Thorium
Cycles" |
| Kazuo Furukawa et.al. "Thorium Molten Salt Nuclear Energy
Synergetic System" |
| Yoichiro Shimazu , "Preliminary Core Designs of Two Fluid Molten
Salt Reactor" |
|
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| We held 3 seminars in 2009, inviting the
above people. |
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| Also, we provided lectures to the public/university |
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We issued an Annual report.
(In Japanese) |
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The president of this Forum is Dr. Kazuo Furukawa, who has been involving in this development
for more than 40 years.
His paper tilted "Effective Proposal for Non-proliferation" was selected and honored as the Best Paper Award in 2006 by the Sato-prize foundation
(Sato-prize was started by former prime
minister
Eisaku Sato, who received a Novel Peace
Prize). |
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THORIMS-NES (Thorium Molten-Salt Nuclear
Energy Synergetics)
The reduction of CO2 emission is a global
concern for all industrialized countries
as is the development of new energy sources.
Nuclear energy can play an important role
in this context since it does not emit CO2
for power generation. As stressed by OECD,
the share of nuclear energy forecasted at
about 10% of the primary energy supply by
2050 is not enough and should be significantly
increased to at least about 30 % in 2050
and 50 % in 2080 to drastically reduce emission
of CO2 and to stabilize concentration of
CO2 in atmosphere at low level. However,
there are still some concerns and difficulties
in the current nuclear power such as nuclear
proliferation, radioactive waste, safety,
economy, usability etc. Therefore, there
is a need for a novel nuclear industry for
a global scale usage.
The concept of the Molten Salt Reactor (MSR)
was established more than 40 years ago.
During the 1960s, the US developed the Molten
Salt Breeder Reactor (MSBR) as the primary
back-up option for the fast breeder reactor
(FBR). And a small Experimental Reactor (MSRE)
was operated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL).
There is now renewed interest in the concept
in Japan, Russia, France and the USA, and
one of the six Generation-IV designs selected
for further development is the MSR. Strong
incentives for the molten salt reactor design
are its good fuel utilization, good economics,
amazing fuel flexibility and promised large
benefits.
In Japan, the nuclear energy system “THORIMS-NES
(Thorium Molten-Salt Nuclear Energy Synergetic
System)” is a new concept, designed such
as to bring a novel huge size nuclear industry
without any big investment.
Following several R&D years and a pilot
scale prototype (miniFUJI), there is now
a just started commercial project. It deals
with the realization of a thorium-based molten
salt reactor (Th-MSR: FUJI, cf. Fig.1).
The followings are the major advantages of
the Th-MSR.
・ a conclusive measure on greenhouse-gas
elimination,
・ nuclear proliferation & terrorism
resistance (no Pu production),
・ less long-lived nuclear waste production
・ very high safety (no severe accident
principally
and practically)
・ Thorium resources (large and worldwide
distributed)
・ low electricity generation cost
・ easy deployment (small/simple economical
reactors)
・ Large sized plant is also possible. |
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Fig.1 3D view of Molten Salt Reactor "FUJI"
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Fig.2 Concept of THORIMS-NES
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AMSB (Accelerator Molten-Salt Breeding Facility)
is a proton accelerator driven system (ADS),
and produce U233 from Th232, by the neutrons
from spallation reaction. (see Fig.3)
Fig.3 Concept of THORIMS-NES
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Ratest FUJI deisgn paper(PDF) is shown here
(Click here)
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