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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.
John F. Geldard, Adolph L. Beyerlein, Houn-Lin Chiu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 78 | Number 2 | August 1987 | Pages 151-156
Technical Paper | Chemical Processing | doi.org/10.13182/NT87-A33993
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The mathematical basis for a computer code PUNE (Plutonium-Uranium-Non-Equilibrium) is described. The code simulates the steady-state concentration profiles of solvent extraction contactors used in the Purex process under conditions where material transfer between phases deviates from the equilibrium limit. The deviation is accounted for by a mass transfer area characteristic of the operating conditions of a contactor, and a mass transfer coefficient for the chemical species of interest. In the limit of infinite mass transfer rate, PUNE gives the same results as other codes that calculate equilibrium profiles. For 1A and IE contactors, the computational times are reduced between two- and fivefold over times required by other codes that generate the steady-state profiles via transient state conditions. For 1B or partitioning contactors, the reduction in time can be more than 20-fold. Since there is no loss of accuracy in these calculations, PUNE represents an important advance in the determination of steady-state profiles, especially for 1B contactors because it is with these that the greatest computational difficulties are encountered.