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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.
Thomas M. Parker, Richard J. Kohrt, Sue I. Dederer, Larry E. Hochreiter, Walter R. Schwarz, Chon-Kwo Tsai, Michael Y. Young
Nuclear Technology | Volume 85 | Number 2 | May 1989 | Pages 227-237
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34243
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Calculations were performed using a best-estimate computer code that determined the estimates of the 50th percentile peak cladding temperature (PCT) (1006 K) and the 95th percentile PCT (1263 K). These calculations included realistic WCOBRA/TRAC predictions of thermal-hydraulic phenomena occurring inside the vessel during upper plenum injection (UPI). The work done in applying realistic thermal-hydraulic methods for pressurized water reactors (PWRs) with UPI represents an important step in the maturation of advanced best-estimate computer codes like WCOBRA/ TRAC because their effect is finally being used in the licensing of operating plants, and their benefits are being used to make those PWRs more flexible and economic to operate.