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  El Salvador: Looking to nuclear
  In 2022, El Salvador’s leadership decided to expand its modest, mostly hydro- and geothermal-based electricity system, which is supported by expensive imported natural gas and diesel generation. They chose to use advanced nuclear reactors, preferably fueled by thorium-based fuels, to power their civilian efforts. The choice of thorium was made to inform the world that the reactor program was for civilian purposes only, and so they chose a fuel that was plentiful, easy to source and work with, and not a proliferation risk.
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Mitigating the release of tritium produced from neutron irradiation of molten salts containing lithium or beryllium is a technical challenge for several advanced reactor designs. In a pebble bed Fluoride-Salt-Cooled High-Temperature Reactor (FHR), tritium generated in the Li₂BeF₄ (Flibe) coolant is expected to interact with the large inventory of graphite in the core. The degree to which tritium is retained in the FHR core graphite is important to understand in order to predict the tritium distribution in the reactor, operational dose rates in the plant, tritium source term, and optimal strategies to mitigate environmental release. Tritium retention in graphite is simulated in this work based on a model that considers tritium diffusion from Flibe into graphite pores as well as diffusion and trapping in graphite grains. The retention model was implemented into the TRIDENT model framework to study tritium transport at the FHR system level. Tritium permeation through the FHR primary heat exchanger was the largest source of release from the primary system, followed by tritium retention and recirculation of graphite fuel pebbles.