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LLNL, Ampera partner to develop thorium-based TRISO fuel
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has formed a strategic partnership with Ampera to develop the company’s nuclear fuel concept through a project named THUNDER, for Thorium Unimodal Droplet Ejection for Reactors.
The focus of THUNDER is fabricating TRISO made with kernels of thorium rather than the usual uranium. LLNL and Ampera will evaluate and optimize liquid metal–jetting technology to produce highly uniform, spherical kernels of thorium-232 for later processing into TRISO fuel.
Michaele (Mikey) Brady Raap has been an active member of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) since 1985. In that time, she has held many ANS leadership positions, including the chairmanship of the Reactor Physics and the Nuclear Criticality Safety Divisions, and the Operations and Power Division.
She has more than 25 years of experience in nuclear and criticality safety for plutonium processing and spent fuel systems, including the design and review of benchmark experiments, safety assessments at operating facilities, and integrating safety-in-design.
Brady Raap has had extensive involvement with international and U.S. nuclear organizations. She is the Chair of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency, and the Expert Group on Burnup Credit Criticality, an active member of multiple industry standards development groups for the American National Standards Institute/American Nuclear Society, and the International Standards Organization. Currently, she serves as chairman of the OECD/NEA Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety and is a member of the Department of Energy Nuclear Criticality Safety Support Group
Prior to joining Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 1999, she was with Duke Engineering Services Incorporated, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. She performed her dissertation research at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and received her BS, MS and PhD in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University.
Brady Raap received a Special Recognition Award in 2011 involving Fukushima Media for her service during the accident.
Read Nuclear News from July 2014 for more on Dr. Brady Raap.