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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|Radioisotope Power Systems
Tuesday, May 6, 2025|1:00–2:40PM CDT|Salon EF (Marriott)
Session Chair:
Colleen Van Lear (NASA Glenn Research Center)
Track Organizer:
Harold Gerrish (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)
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Stirling Convertor Launch Vibration Modeling
1:00–1:25PM CDT
Brett N. Shapiro (Johns Hopkins Univ. APL), Dennis J. Duven (Johns Hopkins Univ. APL), Martin E. Fraeman (Johns Hopkins Univ. APL), David M. Reed (Johns Hopkins Univ. APL)
Paper
Development of System Identification Testing Method for Stirling Convertors
1:25–1:50PM CDT
Donguk Max Yang (NASA)
Efficient Computational Method for Three-Dimensional Thermally- and Electrically-Coupled Performance Prediction of GPHS-RTG
1:50–2:15PM CDT
Carter D. Gassler (Univ. Pittsburgh), Michael J. Durka (Univ. Pittsburgh), Natan P. Herzog (Univ. Pittsburgh), Matthew M. Barry (Univ. Pittsburgh)
Thermal/Fluidic Model of Heat and CO Transport in the Next-Generation RTG Under Storage Conditions
2:15–2:35PM CDT
Michael J. Durka (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Jean-Pierre Fleurial (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)