ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 15–18, 2026
Phoenix, AZ|Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
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.
Gerhard Karsten
Nuclear Technology | Volume 77 | Number 3 | June 1987 | Pages 349-353
Technical Note | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT87-A33975
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The application of image-analytical, indenting, and quantitative scanning electron microscopic methods on irradiated uranium and mixed-oxide fuel materials yields nonlinear thermodynamic operational data. Any oxide fuel material from a specific fabrication process undergoes its own means of transformation toward thermodynamic equilibrium through structural metamorphoses by irreversible processes far from equilibrium. The related dissipation energies vary with burnup and temperature because of the variable capability of energy storage, due to specific structural reactions on nuclear impacts. This fact leads to a large variety of operational material properties. Preferable operational hyperelasticity and subsequent viscoelasticity can be predetermined by intentional selected kinetic processing during fuel fabrication.