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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.
Tatsutoshi Inagaki, Hiroyuki Kuga, Masao Suzuki, Tsugio Yokoyama, Mitsuaki Yamaoka, Kunikazu Kaneto, Masahisa Ohashi, Kunitoshi Kurihara
Nuclear Technology | Volume 88 | Number 3 | December 1989 | Pages 262-282
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34309
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Design studies are performed for a commercial liquid-metal fast breeder reactor core that can achieve a burnup of 200 GWd/t. A plutonium-type asymmetric parfait core with two different plutonium-enriched zones in the axial direction as well as in the radial direction is studied. This core concept solves core design problems related to high burnup, and it is possible to achieve a burnup of 200 GWd/t with this concept. A core with ductless fuel assemblies suitable for high burnup is also studied. An axially heterogeneous core was selected from among various concepts. It is possible to realize a core with a burnup of 200 GWd/t, a compact size, and a lower core pressure drop than the demonstration reactor design.