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Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
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September 2026
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August 2026
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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.
19th International Conference on Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Analysis (PSA 2025)
Technical Session|Panel|Sponsored by NISD
Tuesday, June 17, 2025|1:00–2:45PM CDT|Purdue/Wisconsin
Session Chair:
Karl N. Fleming
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Nathan R. DeKett
For in-scope structures, systems, and components (SSCs), applications such as the Licensing Modernization Project (NEI 18-04 Rev. 1) and Reliability Integrity Management (ASME BPVC Section XI Division 2) call for setting low-level reliability targets that collectively satisfy various higher-level risk goals and also satisfy considerations related to defense in depth. In a specific plant design application, given • a PRA, • SSC-level reliability targets, • the associated SSC-level capability requirements assumed in the PRA, and • a good understanding of the stressors and processes that degrade the constituent materials of those SSCs, the processes associated with monitoring and non-destructive examination can be formulated so as to show whether SSC-level targets are being satisfied in operation. If they are not being satisfied, satisfaction of the plant-level goals may be threatened. The reliability targets chosen clearly affect not only the safety case, but also the resource implications of the required monitoring and non-destructive examination. The process of setting reliability targets is not yet standard, and panel discussion of that topic is expected to be fruitful.