International Thorium Molten-Salt Forum
(English page)

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

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)

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。



"Thorium as Nuclear Fuel in the Molten Salt Reactor"

Lecture by prof. Eduardo Greaves (Venezuela) is uploaded at the youtube.
This 35-min. talk was provided at the Schiller Institute (Frankfurt/Germany) in April 2013, and it covers almost everything on Molten Salt Reactor.
Please click the below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBIyZZuQl4A&list=PLoHwt4KyUk5BNBJ_NtTruKKOFuDWjMgRl&index=7



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



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.



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/



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.



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.


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)

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

Dr.Furukawa's last article "THORIMS-NES",
click here
or down-load to your PC (2MB PDF).


Its title is "New Sustainable Secure Nuclear Industry Based on Thorium Molten-Salt Nuclear Energy Synergetics (THORIMS-NES)", and this is Section-17 of a book "Nuclear Power . Deployment, Operation and Sustainability".


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.


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.


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

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.


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"


We held 3 seminars in 2009, inviting the above people.
Also, we provided lectures to the public/university
We issued an Annual report.
(In Japanese)

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).


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.

Fig.1 3D view of Molten Salt Reactor "FUJI"



Fig.2 Concept of THORIMS-NES


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


Ratest FUJI deisgn paper(PDF) is shown here (Click here)

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