US-based start-up NANO Nuclear Energy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Department of Nuclear Science & Engineering have begun a two-year collaboration to investigate the thermal and radiolytic behaviour of nitrate molten salts to assess their viability in advanced nuclear energy systems for thermal energy storage and cooling applications.
The project, funded by NANO Nuclear through some $500,000 of research and development investment, will be conducted under the supervision of Professor Koroush Shirvan, Principal Investigator and a leading expert in nuclear systems engineering. The research will focus on molten salt materials subjected to gamma irradiation using MIT’s Gammacell 220F Co-60 irradiator in a safe, precisely controlled, and highly instrumented test environment.
“Understanding how molten salts perform under radiation is essential to unlocking next-generation reactor designs, and this facility gives us the capabilities to do that without the use of any nuclear materials,” said NANO Nuclear Founder and Chairman Jay Yu.
While molten nitrate salts are widely used in solar thermal energy systems, little is known about the behaviour of these materials under the ionising radiation conditions representative of nuclear environments. The collaboration aims to fill that critical knowledge gap by assessing both the chemical and thermophysical performance of the salts during and after irradiation.
Using a suite of cutting-edge diagnostics, including a magnetic sector residual gas analyser (RGA), laser flash analysis, and post-irradiation spectroscopic techniques, MIT researchers will measure off-gassing behaviour, thermal degradation, and long-term material stability. The results will inform system design for microreactors that utilise molten salts for heat transfer or energy storage, improving the accuracy and reliability of safety and performance models.
“This project offers an exciting opportunity to characterise molten nitrate salts in radiation environments with a level of precision not previously achieved,” said Dr Koroush Shirvan, Principal Investigator at MIT. “We’re using real-time diagnostics, high-temperature test rigs, and modern analytical techniques to generate data that can have immediate impact on next-generation reactor development.”
The results of the study will feed directly into engineering and design processes and could also prove useful for other clean energy applications, including industrial process heat and off-grid energy storage.
“We are thrilled to see this groundbreaking research move forward with MIT,” said Professor Ian Farnan, Lead of Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Radiation & Materials of NANO Nuclear. “The ability to assess salt performance in radiation fields without reliance on operating reactor gives us unprecedented flexibility and speed in advancing the development of our reactor systems.”
The project is expected to conclude in 2027, with quarterly updates and final data delivery coordinated between MIT and NANO Nuclear’s engineering teams.
