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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.
Rafael de la Fuente, J. Manuel Dey, Pablo G. Sedano, Pedro Mata
Nuclear Technology | Volume 128 | Number 2 | November 1999 | Pages 169-185
Technical Paper | RETRAN | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A3023
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The reload transient analysis methodology developed for the Cofrentes boiling water reactor-6, 2894-MW(thermal)-rated nuclear power plant is based on the RETRAN-03/MOD1 code. Cross-section files have been calculated with the CASMO-3/SIMULATE-3/SLICK codes. The system and hot-channel thermal-hydraulic responses have been predicted with the RETRAN-03 code, and the thermal margin for each fuel type has been determined by the TCPUIT code.Transient analyses are performed under several initial conditions to improve the plant operational flexibility. The two most thermal limiting plant transients were simulated: (a) generator load rejection with concurrent failure of the condenser bypass system and (b) failure of the feedwater flow control system to maximum demand. In addition, overpressure is evaluated with RETRAN-03, i.e., a closure of the main-isolation-valve transient.The Cofrentes tenth reload licensing analyses are verified against official fuel vendor calculations. The results obtained agree with them and cover the vendor thermal margins for the different fuel types considered.