Syd Ball designed control system and experiments for ORNL MSRE, and continued work on HTGR after MSRE was shut down.
Uri Gat joined ORNL in 1974 as manager of the Gas-Cooled Fast Breeder Reactor Program and managed the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor Program 1980-82. Before ORNL, Uri worked on a discontinued 1963 (Epithermal) Molten Salt Reactor program in Germany, and has remained a strong advocate for MSR.
Thomas Jam Pedersen of Copenhagen Atomics is building commercial Molten Salt loops as they iterate them internally for testing of monitoring equipment to be used with Molten Salt Reactors.
The odd structure of this video is a result of me being pulled out of ORNL on a Visa issue. As I gobbled down lunch before needing to head out to resolve the issue, we first set up the conversation with Syd and Thomas... then as I was eating some guy wandered into the frame. Uri Gat! Get Uri Gat in the conversation!
I had actually been trying to interview Uri for years! Then I had to leave to deal with the Visa. Aslak Stubsgaard (also of Copenhagen Atomics) helped with a hand-held DSLR and asking questions.
I did (later that day) interview Uri myself, but I thought I'd post this separately since the two conversations probably can't be consolidated effectively.