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So I've got a question for y'all: why the fuck are there compressors and heatsinks at the lower right corner. To my lizard brain it seams to only lower the efficiency or is there something that Wikipedia isn't telling? For the past few hours I've been researching reactors and fuels as that's my newest passion
It's a failsafe...

In the event of a power failure the compressor fails and the frozen plug of salt melts draining the contents of the reaction chamber into a holding tank.

Is this the first time you have looked at one of these designs?
I know that the freezer plug is a failsafe as it's quite common for these "dry" reactor designs but i still don't undestand why you'd want to have compressors and pre coolers if you're feeding the coolant into a turbine which powers compressors and a generator.
>is this your first time looking at this design
Yea kinda, i came across this design researching thorium breeder reactors
Okay. Right hand side. Muh bad.

This part of the diagram seems to be dealing with an isolated circuit for high pressure steam. The steam seems to be getting recondensed into water before migrating back into the heat exchanger.

Cooling the steam to recycle the water is a step many power plants do not take. Because you are correct. It reduces the efficiency of the power generation.
Pretty sure it's not using steam, it's using super-critical CO2 because it's more efficient at the high temperatures you can get out of an MSR
In any case the main source of energy for the turbine comes from a pressure difference from one side of the turbine to the other.

I am a brainlet though. I'll wait and see if there's a better explanation.
Thanks man! It realy threw me off as I've never realy seen this added step being taken in other reactor designs. Thanks once more!
yes, it's a parasitic element like a supercooler, it must just be more efficient to put the load directly on the steam than to plug in a regular electric refrigeration unit on the far end of the generator.

Also by this design the freezeplug is guaranteed to be on its own circuit with the reactor, where as an electrical circuit using generator energy can be subject to grid failures or the plug remaining frozen after the reactor has failed (because its on an external circuit).

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