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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.
Pao-Shan Weng, Hseuh-Hsing Cheng, Chuan-Chung Hsu, Kuan-Han Sun
Nuclear Technology | Volume 76 | Number 1 | January 1987 | Pages 60-67
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT87-A33897
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The applications of nuclear technology in reactor siting with reference to earthquake prediction and fault exploration are discussed. The technique first used thin thermoluminescent dosimeters to monitor alpha particles from soil radon emanation; these dosimeters were later replaced by cellulose nitrate films and a self-fabricated spark counter. Data from a 2-yr observation of soil radon emanation correlated with earthquakes are presented graphically. Radon peaks appeared 5 to 20 days before earthquakes. A similar technique was also applied in fault exploration. The higher radon peaks appear at the location of the fault. This simple and inexpensive technique is particularly well-suited to nuclear reactor siting since the area of interest at the site is quite limited. The extension of this technique to the public communication program for a nuclear facility is also suggested.