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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.
John K. Wheeler, Alexander Sesonske
Nuclear Technology | Volume 75 | Number 1 | October 1986 | Pages 113-115
Technical Note | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT86-A15982
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
ORIGEN2 was used to develop a data base of pressurized water reactor isotopic concentrations at various times after discharge with core burnup, specific power, enrichment, and neutron spectrum as variables. Results were analyzed to determine source term sensitivity to core management. Fuel rod power history was found to have an important effect on the source term. Activity and decay power are almost linear with specific power for the first month of cooling, but not sensitive to the other parameters. Longer term isotopic sensitivities are described but are not important to the source term. Long-term decay power is primarily dependent on burnup, which is also a function of exposure history.