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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.
I. Bernstein, J. S. Greacen, R. A. Matzie, D. D. Miller
Nuclear Technology | Volume 56 | Number 3 | March 1982 | Pages 516-526
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A32910
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Semiannual refueling was evaluated as an alternative to the current annual refueling interval for pressurized water reactors. A reference refueling shutdown schedule was established and, by reviewing critical path outage tasks, a minimum duration refueling-only outage was postulated. An improved refueling system consisting of two cantilever-mounted refueling machines and two fuel transfer systems was developed, and an advanced fuel management scheme was examined that reduced the amount of fuel shuffled. In addition, an economic evaluation was performed to determine breakeven energy costs.