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.
Rajesh Ahluwalia, Thanh Q. Hua, Howard K. Geyer
Nuclear Technology | Volume 126 | Number 3 | June 1999 | Pages 289-302
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A2975
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A theoretical model is used to analyze the transport of U and Zr in electrorefining of irradiated binary Experimental Breeder Reactor-II fuel. A limiting-current hypothesis is advanced to explain the observed dissolution of Zr in the presence of U at high, intermediate, and low cell voltages. The internal diffusion model predicts the existence of a critical current and a critical voltage for Zr oxidation. Experimental results are presented for a test designed and run based on optimum conditions determined from the model to dissolve U expediently while retaining Zr in the anode baskets. A simple model of kinetic exchange reactions between salt-phase U and Cd-phase Zr is formulated to explain the measured electrodeposition of Zr on the solid cathode. It is shown that the Zr content of the deposit is overpredicted if the pool is considered isolated and grossly underpredicted if the salt phase is equilibrated instantaneously with the Cd pool. Finally, the aspects of anodic current efficiency and cathodic collection efficiency are discussed taking into account shorting between the dissolution baskets and the Cd pool, multiple oxidation states of Zr, and the exchange reactions between the fuel and UCl3 prior to electrotransport.