Molten salt processes in special materials preparation

As a class, molten salts are the largest collection of non aqueous inorganic solvents. On account of their stability at high temperature and compatibility to a number of process requirements, molten salts are considered indispensable to realize many of the numerous benefits of high temperature technology. They play a crucial role and form the basis for numerous elegant processes for the preparation of metals and materials. Molten salt are considered versatile heat transfer media and have led to the evolution of many interesting reactor concepts in fission and possibly in fusion. They also have been the basis of thinking for few novel processes for power generation. While focusing principally on the actual utilization of molten salts for a variety of materials preparation efforts in BARC, this lecture also covers a few of the other areas of technological applications together with the scientific basis for considering the molten salts in such situations. (author)