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.
Ronald R. Winget
Nuclear Technology | Volume 85 | Number 1 | April 1989 | Pages 7-11
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34222
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Based on personal and industrial experiences, Point Beach Nuclear Plant personnel have developed a secondary in-service inspection program to detect and quantify significant service-related degradation and preexisting conditions in piping systems that could jeopardize the integrity of those systems in the future. The underlying objective of the program is to look at piping components whose failure could result in significant personnel or equipment damage. The primary concern is to locate areas of severe erosion-corrosion in carbon steel piping prior to the occurrence of a leak or catastrophic rupture. In addition, certain welds are examined to locate areas of significant fatigue damage demonstrated by service-related flaw extension or crack growth. Using an internally developed computer model called the Badness Factor Program, plant personnel rank components as to their susceptibility to erosion-corrosion and stress-induced fatigue. It uses hydrodynamic variables to assign a factor to each component and fitting so a comparison of the relative magnitudes of this factor can be made for a given system or piping section. A qualitative decision is then made as to where the most likely location is for degradation.