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 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 15–18, 2026
Phoenix, AZ|Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
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.
Bal Raj Sehgal, Ching-Lu Lin, Edward L. Fuller
Nuclear Technology | Volume 57 | Number 2 | May 1982 | Pages 149-162
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A26277
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A liquid-metal fast breeder reactor core design employing seed-blanket-type modular assemblies is presented. The seed region contains PUO2-UO2 fuel and the blanket region contains depleted UO2 fuel. These assemblies constitute the inner core while conventional mixed-oxide assemblies are employed in the outer core region. The results of design studies and analysis show that a large reduction in the sodium void reactivity can be obtained. The core fissile loading is larger than that for a homogeneous core. The analysis of an unprotected loss-of-flow (LOF) accident shows drastically reduced potential for a LOF-driven transient overpower accident. These results and conclusions are similar to those obtained for other heterogeneous core designs.