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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.
V. K. Dhir, W. E. Kastenberg, D. W. Varela
Nuclear Technology | Volume 46 | Number 3 | December 1979 | Pages 447-452
Technical Paper | Nuclear Power Reactor Safety / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A32352
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Generally, the blockages that may form in the reactor core when molten fuel is ejected into the coolant channels during a transient overpower accident can be divided into two categories. The first type of blockage forms when semi-molten fuel particles hit a wire wrap and freeze on the wire wrap, whereas the second type of blockage forms when solid or semi-solid particles get stuck in the coolant channels. The thermal-hydraulic analysis of these proposed blockages indicates that under certain specific conditions, the blockages can lead to melting of the wire wrap and cladding and also to in-channel voiding. The second type of blockage, if formed as a plug, may remelt before being quenched by subcooled or saturated sodium.