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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.
Norikatsu Yokota, Shigehiro Shimoyashiki
Nuclear Technology | Volume 81 | Number 3 | June 1988 | Pages 407-414
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A16061
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The characteristics of self-welding of fast breeder reactor structural materials in liquid sodium have been investigated. A maximum contact pressure of 98 MPa was loaded on the materials (Type 304, Type 321, Inconel 718, and 2.25 Cr-1Mo steel) for 100 to 900 h in sodium at 505 to 550°C. Shear stress for breakaway between the bonded material couples is in proportion to contact pressure. The 2.25 Cr-1 Mo steel welded to itself is the strongest combination among couples of the same material. Each pair of two materials chosen from Type 304, Type 321, and Inconel 718 materials shows almost the same self-welding coefficient, which is defined as the ratio between shear stress for breakaway and contact pressure on testing. Self-welding coefficients are in proportion to the square root of the contact periods and increase as the temperature of sodium is elevated. The apparent activation energy obtained from the self-welding coefficient is ∼188 kJ/mol for the combination of 2.25 Cr-1 Mo/2.25 Cr-1 Mo, and 218 kJ/mol for Type 304/Type 304 or Type 304/Type 321.