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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.
R. O. Meyer, C. R. Hann, D. D. Lanning
Nuclear Technology | Volume 27 | Number 3 | November 1975 | Pages 389-393
Technical Paper | Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT75-A24312
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Plutonium segregation during normal operation is not expected in light water reactor (LWR) plutonium recycle fuels, but it could occur if these fuels were operated in a sustained overpower condition. Existing thermal performance and neu-tronic computer codes have been used to compare the effects of postulated segregation with the behavior of homogeneous fuels. Central void formation, which should accompany plutonium segregation, reduces fuel temperatures markedly; but even if a central void is assumed not to form, the fuel’s centerline temperature stored energy, and melting point are not significantly affected by the postulated segregation. It is concluded that plutonium segregation is not an important phenomenon in LWR plutonium recycle fuels.