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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.
Corinne Bangil, Gérard Gambier, Michel Soldevila
Nuclear Technology | Volume 84 | Number 3 | March 1989 | Pages 344-349
Technical Paper | Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Risk Management / Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34218
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Pressurized water reactor four-batch fuel management represents, in the present context, an economic optimum for the French standardized series of reactors. Plutonium recycling on an industrial scale has already started in France; therefore, it is essential to ascertain its compatibility with four-batch refueling requirements. In the survey considered, it is shown that a core refueled annually with 28 UO2 assemblies, having a 3.7% 235 U content and 12 mixed-oxide assemblies containing 6.5% plutonium, entirely satisfies safety criteria under normal operating conditions. A supplementary survey will be performed to assess its behavior under such accident conditions as steam line break and rod ejection.