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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.
Geoffrey Waplington, Hannes Fichtner
Nuclear Technology | Volume 38 | Number 2 | April 1978 | Pages 215-220
Technical Paper | Low-Temperature Nuclear Heat / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT78-A32015
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The technical as well as the economic aspects of using a large commercial light water reactor for the production of both electricity and potable water have been examined. For the basis of the study, the multistage flash distillation process was selected, in conjunction with a reactor rated at not less than 2100 MW(thermal). Combined use of a condensing and a back-pressure turbine (the latter matched to distillation plant steam requirements) represents a convenient method for supplying process heat. Overall costs can be fairly allocated to the two products using the “power credit” method. A sample economic evaluation indicates highly favorable water costs as compared with more conventional distillation schemes based on fossil fuel