Computer simulations of molten salts interactions with metallic materials

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Small modular reactors have been identified by the Canadian government as a "source of safe, clean, affordable energy [...] for Canada and Canadians." Several of these reactor concepts rely on molten salt heat exchange loops, rather than traditional water-based heat exchangers. A key issue is that molten-salt driven corrosion is much less understood. This is of prime importance for the three main industry partners-the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Ontario Power Generation, and Global First Power-which are involved in the design, planning and construction of Canada's small modular reactors. In order to bridge this knowledge gap, we will perform atom-by-atom computer simulations to understand and predict how molten salts interact with metallic structural materials. A challenging aspect of this research is that interatomic interactions are intrinsically quantum in nature. Simulation methods based on quantum mechanics are accurate, but tend to have a prohibitive computational cost. Here, we will use state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms to construct interatomic interaction models with a level of accuracy comparable to that of quantum-mechanics-based methods, but at a tractable computational cost. The research project will involve four industrial internships on the site of the industry partners, helping train the next generation of Canadian nuclear industry scientists.