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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.
J. Rest
Nuclear Technology | Volume 56 | Number 3 | March 1982 | Pages 553-564
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A32914
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The interrelationship between fuel fracturing (microcracking), temperature scenario, and fission-gas-bubble response is investigated. The fission-gas-bubble behavior is described using the FASTGRASS computer code. A model, based on the work of DiMelfi and Deitrich describing ductile/brittle fuel behavior, has been incorporated into the FASTGRASS analysis. The predictions of fission-gas release, radial distribution of released gas, radial distribution of microcracking, and fuel temperatures are compared with the results of transient direct-electrical-heating experiments on irradiated light water reactor fuel. Finally, results of analyses for Three Mile Island Unit 2 type accident conditions are presented and implications for microcracking and fission-gas behavior during this accident are discussed.