Editing Thorium Reactor Safety Features (section)

=== 3. No High-Pressure Coolant ===

Conventional light water reactors operate at extremely high pressure — typically 150–160 atmospheres for pressurised water reactors. This pressure is required to keep the water coolant liquid above 100 °C. The pressure vessel is one of the most complex and critical components of an LWR, and a loss of coolant accident — a breach of the pressure vessel or coolant loop — is the defining catastrophic failure scenario of LWR safety analysis.

MSRs and LFTRs operate near atmospheric pressure. The fluoride salt coolant remains liquid at temperatures up to 1,430 °C without any pressurisation. There is no high-pressure vessel, no coolant pressurisation system, and no loss-of-coolant accident scenario in the LWR sense.