Within the scope of the decision taken at the 29th Meeting of the Supreme Council of Science and Technology in 2016, it is aimed to introduce nuclear technology to Turkey's technological infrastructure within the scope of the article "Encouraging R&D studies that serve to gain competence in nuclear energy and fuel cycle technologies" for which TÜBİTAK is responsible. With the motivation of being involved from the beginning in an advanced generation reactor technology that is compatible with the nuclear technology studies in the world and is currently being developed, studies have started to establish a prototype Molten Salt reactor (ETR), to acquire its technology, to develop special alloy materials to be used in the reactor and to have fuel technology.
In this context, a "Molten Salt Reactor Technology Identification Workshop" was held at TÜBİTAK MAM on December 3-4, 2017 to select a prototype by taking into account parameters such as the type of ETR, salt and fuel type, prototype power and application areas of heat utilization.
The first day of the workshop was moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Makaracı, Vice President of Strategy and Technology Development at MAM, and Prof. Dr. Else Merle-Lucotte, Dr. Michel Allibert and Dr. Axel Laureau, experts in nuclear technology studies from CNRS-Grenoble, gave seminars on the types and selection of ETRs. On the second day, moderated by Dr. Orkun Hasekioğlu, Vice President of TÜBİTAK, Turkish experts in the nuclear field made presentations and exchanged views on ETR prototype selection.
At the end of the workshop, the idea of establishing a thorium-based, low-power, productive, fast-spectrum prototype ETR within TÜBİTAK gained weight.
