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 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 15–18, 2026
Phoenix, AZ|Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
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.
Gianfranco Saiu, Gabriele del Nero, Antonio Madonna, Giuseppe Marella, Andrea Orazi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 115 | Number 3 | September 1996 | Pages 320-332
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A15842
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Activity concerning the development of a RELAP5/MOD3 model to simulate the Westinghouse Electric Corporation AP600 is summarized. The aim is to gain initial insight into the capability of RELAP5 to simulate the behavior of AP600 safety features. A-loss-of-normal-feedwater event is studied. Of the transients that must be investigated, this transient has been chosen to be one of the most relevant because the response of the AP600 to a loss-of-normal-feedwater event differs significantly from that of current pressurized water reactors in the extensive use of passive safety features peculiar to the AP600. Also, strong interactions among the AP600 safety systems, which should be further analyzed to permit full optimization of the system actuation logic and operation, are shown. Finally, a loss of normal feedwater without reactor scram, performed to investigate short-term plant behavior, shows that the pressure peak is affected by critical discharge flow coefficients applied to the pressurizer safety valves, while a relatively small reduction of the pressure peak is observed when both heat exchangers of the passive heat removal system are operating as opposed to the case in which only one is available. The data used for this study are derived from the Standard Safety Analysis Report configuration of the Westinghouse AP600 as of 1992.