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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|Space Nuclear Propulsion
Tuesday, May 6, 2025|10:00–11:40AM CDT|SPOC B (Space & Rocket Center)
Session Chair:
Doug Burns (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)
Track Organizer:
Harold Gerrish (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)
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Parametric Trade Space Investigation of Particle Bed Reactors for Nuclear Thermal Propulsion
10:00–10:25AM CDT
Jacob Stonehill (AMA), Corey Smith (AMA), Daria Nikitaeva (AMA), Matthew Duchek (AMA)
Paper
Nuclear Design of a Liquid Uranium-Manganese (UMn) Thermal Propulsion Reactor
10:25–10:50AM CDT
Reem Alnuaimi (KAIST), Yonghee Kim (KAIST)
Methane-based Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Engine Considerations
10:50–11:15AM CDT
Daria Nikitaeva (AMA), Corey D. Smith (AMA), Matthew Duchek (AMA)
Presentation Slides (Visible to Attendees)
Design of an Ammonia-fed Nuclear Thermal Propulsion System for Reusable Space-tug in Cislunar Orbits
11:15–11:40AM CDT
Elia Puccinelli (Univ. Pisa), Valerio Giusti (Univ. Pisa), Angelo Pasini (Univ. Pisa)