ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
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.
Aydin Karahan, Jacopo Buongiorno, Mujid S. Kazimi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 171 | Number 1 | July 2010 | Pages 38-52
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-A10771
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The large assembly with small pins (LASP) concept is an evolutionary boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel assembly design aimed at increasing the power density of BWR cores while keeping the same power-to-flow ratio, core inlet conditions, and fuel-to-moderator ratio. It is based on replacing four traditional assemblies and their large interassembly water gap regions with a single large assembly surrounded by a narrower gap region. The traditional BWR cylindrical UO2-fueled Zr-clad fuel pin design is retained, but the pins are arranged on a 22 × 22 square lattice. Twenty-five water rods within the assembly maintain the moderating power and accommodate as many finger-type control rods. The technical characteristics of LASP were evaluated and are systematically compared with a traditional 9 × 9 fuel assembly. This design study includes analyses of the steady-state thermal hydraulics, two-dimensional and three-dimensional burnup-dependent neutronics, flow-induced vibrations, and fuel pin thermomechanical behavior. Furthermore, the conceptual mechanical design of the LASP assembly is discussed. The analyses show that LASP can operate at a power density that is 20% higher than the traditional BWR assemblies while maintaining the same safety margin.