Working in cooperation with the European Commission Laboratory Joint Research Center, NRG's SALt Irradiation ExperimeNT (SALIENT) is a multi-stage experiment aimed at turning Thorium Molten Salt Reactors (TMSR) into an industrial scale energy source with commercial possibilities.

According to advocacy group Thorium Energy World, the first phase of the experiment is focusing on removing the noble metals produced by the thorium fuel cycle. That is, the metals created in the steps in the nuclear fission process where the thorium transmutes into uranium before splitting to give off energy.

Once this has been achieved, the next step will be to determine how well commonplace materials used in the construction of TSRMs stand up to the corrosive high-temperature salt mixture or to find alternatives to keep down maintenance and operation costs. These might include an alloy of nickel called hastelloy, or Titanium-Zirconium-Molybdenum (TZM alloy

The ultimate goal is to create TMSRs that are modular and scalable to meet local energy demand, yet provides 24-hour power that is available year round. In addition, using molten salts mean that refueling can take place while the reactor is still in operation, drastically reducing downtimes.

Eoin Treacy's view

Molten Salt reactors never got the go ahead in the early days of nuclear development because of the difficulty of producing weaponised materials from them. In the current age that is one of the primary points in their favour since what we need is a non-proliferation friendly design that is less susceptible to meltdowns. Nevertheless, it will be years before we have a working prototype.