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Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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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.
Technical Session|Fission Surface Power
Wednesday, May 7, 2025|1:00–2:40PM CDT|Salon EF (Marriott)
Session Chair:
Mark Lefebvre (NASA Glenn Research Center)
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Greg Fedor (NASA Glenn Research Center)
Track Organizer:
Harold Gerrish (Marshall Space Flight Center)
Space fission power systems will require extensive developmental and qualification testing prior to launch and in-space operations. This technical session will offer insight into several recent test efforts, including discussions of the test preparations, design and fabrication of test support equipment, and summaries of test results. Presenter bios: Luke Hansen is a Ph.D. student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville studying advanced fabrication techniques of thermoelectric materials for radioisotope thermoelectric generators.
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Design Methodology of a Pressurized Irradiation Test Apparatus for Stirling Convertor Organics in the Fission Surface Power Project
1:00–1:25PM CDT
Luke R. Hansen (Univ. Tennessee, Knoxville), Tyler R. Steiner (NASA Glenn Research Center), Brandon A. Wilson (ORNL), Michael T. Barron (Jacobs Technology)
Paper
Preliminary Findings of Lunar Dust Testing on Radiator Performance
1:25–1:50PM CDT
Ronald Leibach (NASA), Greeta Thaikattil (NASA), James Sanzi (HX5, LLC), Meghan Bush (NASA)
Impedance Spectroscopy for Unraveling Self-Healing Mechanisms in Half-Heusler Thermoelectric Alloys
1:50–2:15PM CDT
Oliver Jeffery (Univ. Leicester), Agostino Maurotto (Univ. Leicester), Pierluigi Chiovaro (Univ. Palermo), Pietro Alessandro Di Maio (Univ. Palermo), Richard M. Ambrosi (Univ. Leicester), Ramy Mesalam (Univ. Leicester)
