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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.
Ung-Soo Kim, Poong-Hyun Seong
Nuclear Technology | Volume 141 | Number 2 | February 2003 | Pages 157-166
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3357
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this research, lower shifted worth control rods (LSWCRs) are suggested to mitigate problems related to variation of axial power distribution during the power maneuvering of pressurized water reactors. These rods are classified into two types. The first type is "multipurpose control rod," and the other type is "regulating control rod." Two multipurpose control rod banks (LSWCR1, LSWCR2) and three regulating control rod banks (LSWCR5, LSWCR4, LSWCR3) are suggested and developed. The moving characteristics of LSWCRs, related to variation of reactivity and the axial offset (AO), are analyzed, and the operation strategy for LSWCRs is established. Then, an application of LSWCRs for the power maneuvering is performed using the developed strategy, and the reference daily load pattern is 100-50-100%, 2-6-2-14h pattern that is appropriate for operation of the electric grid in Korea. From the results, it is shown that the combinative use of multipurpose control rods (LSWCR1, LSWCR2) makes it possible to control the AO within the target band during the power maneuvering. Also, the results show that the power maneuvering without reactivity compensation by change of boron concentration is accomplished, and consequently the minimization of boron concentration change is possible.