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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.
W. J. Mills, Bernard Mastel
Nuclear Technology | Volume 73 | Number 1 | April 1986 | Pages 102-108
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT86-A16206
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fast neutron irradiation to total fluences ranging from 7.7 × 1021 to 5.7 × 1022 n/cm2 (3 to 16 dpa) resulted in a 65% increase in yield strength and a fourfold reduction in ductility. Intergranular fracture was the dominant failure mode for the irradiated material, whereas equal amounts of intergranular and trans-granular cracking were found in the unirradiated condition. This fracture mechanism transition resulted from intense heterogeneous deformation in a matrix strengthened by an irradiation-produced dislocation substructure. Planar slip bands impinged on the grain boundaries causing very high local stresses. Intergranular cracking resulted because the hardened matrix prevented relaxation of the stress concentrations.