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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.
D. Hittner, J. P. Millot, A. Vallee
Nuclear Technology | Volume 80 | Number 2 | February 1988 | Pages 181-189
Technical Paper | Advanced Light Water Reactor / Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34044
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The first results of the feasibility study on the Framatome convertible spectral shift reactor are presented. The generation rate of the plutonium core is estimated and the feasibility of reactivity control without soluble boron in hot conditions is reaffirmed. Cooling of the core (including fertile spectral shift rods) did not raise any major problem. To avoid reactivity accidents in case of core voidage, plutonium enrichment must be limited to a low value that is still compatible with high burnup on the condition that the spectral shift semitight-lattice design be used. In case of a loss-of-coolant accident, reflooding is performed without exceeding the appendix K limits.