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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.
Calvin C. Oliver, Edward T. Dugan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 69 | Number 2 | May 1985 | Pages 161-169
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33627
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Thermodynamic and transport property predictions for UF6-He gas mixtures are presented covering the operating range of conceptual, circulating gas core nuclear systems. The gas mixtures of interest contain 10 to 20% helium by mass, which corresponds to helium mole fractions of 0.9 and higher. For UF6 partial pressure <10 atm and temperatures in the range of 500 to 2000 K, mixture density can be determined from the ideal gas equation of state with an uncertainty of <10%. Compared to pure UF6, the thermal conductivity of the mixtures is an order of magnitude greater; specific heat is doubled while viscosity is changed very little. For identical systems, it is shown that heat transfer rates for UF6-He mixtures are five to six times greater than for pure UF6.