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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.
D. Oesterwind
Nuclear Technology | Volume 38 | Number 1 | April 1978 | Pages 11-18
Technical Paper | Low-Temperature Nuclear Heat / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT78-A16149
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The economic security of the future energy supply requires the introduction of new energy technologies. The reason is the gradual exhaustion of the fossil energy carriers and the fossil emissions. In countries with population density, district heating is advantageous. For reasons of economical convenience and the conservation of fossil energy reserves, nuclear district heat coupling is better than fossil district heat coupling. District heat can provide the industry only with ∼200°C; therefore, the potential of district heat in the residential and commercial sectors of consumption is larger than in industry. High-temperature reactors enable the expansion of the central supply of energy by using district heat and/or synthetic gas.