ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 15–18, 2026
Phoenix, AZ|Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
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.
P. Wydler, W. Heer, P. Stiller, H. U. Wenger
Nuclear Technology | Volume 49 | Number 1 | June 1980 | Pages 115-120
Technical Paper | Nuclear Power Reactor Safety / Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT80-A32512
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In view of the considerable amount of 237Np produced as a by-product in nuclear power reactors, possible utilization of this nuclide in the nuclear fuel cycle has been studied. In particular, the performance of a gas-cooled fast breeder reactor as a neptunium burner was assessed. In a neptunium burner, a major fraction of the 237Np is converted to 238Pu. The 238Pu could be discharged and used to fabricate denatured plutonium fuel elements for light water reactors (LWRs), which are considered to be more proliferation-resistant than ordinary plutonium fuel elements. A strategy was developed and mass flows were computed for a denatured plutonium LWR strategy using uranium, plutonium, and neptunium recycling.