ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
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.
Taewoo Tak, Deokjung Lee, T. K. Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 183 | Number 3 | September 2013 | Pages 427-435
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A19430
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new design of ultralong-cycle fast reactor (UCFR) with power rate of 1000 MW(electric) has been developed based on the strategy of breed and burn. The bottom region of the core with low-enriched uranium plays a role of igniter of the core burning and the upper natural uranium region acts as a blanket for breeding. Fissile materials are bred in the blanket and the active core moves upward at a speed of 5.0 cm/year. Through the core depletion calculation using Monte Carlo code McCARD, it is confirmed that a full-power operation of 60 years without refueling is feasible with respect to nuclear isotopics and criticality. Core performance characteristics have been evaluated in terms of axial/radial power shapes, reactivity feedback coefficients, etc. This design will serve as a base model for further design study of UCFRs using light water reactor spent fuels in the blanket region.