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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.
D. C. Arwood, T. W. Kerlin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 35 | Number 1 | August 1977 | Pages 12-32
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT77-A31847
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A dynamic model was formulated for a new type of steam generator that will be used in a number of pressurized water plants currently on order. This type of steam generator, called an integral economizer or preheat steam generator, introduces part of the feedwater directly into the riser section of a U-tube recirculation-type system. A dynamic model provides a tool for simulation and control studies of this new design. The model is a 24th-order, linearized, moving boundary representation of the system. It includes nodal mass and energy balances for primary fluid, tube metal, and secondary fluid sections. Flows are determined by quasi-static momentum balances. Transients were simulated using the models for various perturbations of interest. Confirmation must await operation of plants with the new steam generator tests, but the model gives physically plausible results. The model provides a tool with adequate detail for control and simulation studies, but with moderate complexity and computer cost.