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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.
Rudolf Seiler, Rakesh Chawla, Kurt Gmür, Helmut Hager, Hans-Dieter Berger, Roland Böhme
Nuclear Technology | Volume 80 | Number 2 | February 1988 | Pages 311-323
Technical Paper | Advanced Light Water Reactor / Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34054
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Comparisons of calculated and measured neutron balance components are reported for the 7.5% fissile plutonium reference test lattice of the PROTEUS—light water high conversion reactor (LWHCR) phase II program, both wet (with H2O) and dry (100% void). Special experimental techniques have been developed and applied, particularly for k∞, and the range of directly measured reaction rate ratios has been extended. For the two cell codes tested, WIMS-D/1981 library and KARBUS/KEDAK-4, specific shortcomings have been identified; the new measurements have been found to be significantly more representative and accurate than the earlier phase I experiments. The k∞, void coefficient for the phase II reference lattice between 0 and 100% void has been found to be qualitatively different from those assessed for the earlier phase I test lattices. Consideration of the individual void coefficient components show this to be largely a consequence of the more LWHCR-representative fuel rod diameter and plutonium isotopic composition of the fuel currently being used. Results of control rod studies conducted for the phase II reference lattice—both wet and dry—serve to illustrate the efforts being made toward investigations of special power reactor features.