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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.
Alex Galperin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 73 | Number 3 | June 1986 | Pages 343-349
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT86-A16076
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A novel concept of thorium once-through fuel cycle for CANDU-type reactors is proposed. The main innovation of the concept is described, including segregation of enriched uranium from thorium to allow separate fuel management routes. Geometry is chosen to enhance leakage of uranium-born neutrons to subcritical thorium parts of the core. Discharged burnup values for thorium and uranium are subjects to optimization regarding uranium savings benefit. Neu-tronic analysis indicated a potential for significant savings in the uranium requirement (∼50%). Fuel cycle cost calculations based on a simple economic model and reasonable set of economic parameters show no economic penalty in realizing fuel utilization improvements.