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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.
Mitsuru Kambe
Nuclear Technology | Volume 128 | Number 1 | October 1999 | Pages 12-24
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A3010
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A 60-MW(electric) fast reactor concept, RAPID-A, without any control rods has been shown to achieve inherent safety and highly automated reactor operation and to provide reactivity control systems with maintenance-free and reliable performance over the plant design lifetime. RAPID-A is one of the variants of the refueling by all pins integrated design (RAPID), fast reactor concept, which enables quick and simplified refueling 2 months after reactor shutdown. In addition to the aforementioned advantages, unique challenges in reactivity control system design have been attempted in the RAPID-A concept. The design involves the following innovative reactivity control systems: lithium expansion modules for inherent reactivity feedback, lithium injection modules for inherent ultimate shutdown, and lithium release modules for automated reactor startup.