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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.
Truong V. Vo, Bryan F. Gore, Elizabeth J. Eschbach, Fredric A. Simonen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 88 | Number 1 | October 1989 | Pages 13-20
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34332
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Some of the goals of the Nondestructive Evaluation Reliability Program sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at Pacific Northwest Laboratory are to assess current inspection requirements for all pressure boundary systems and components, to determine whether improvements to the requirements are needed, and, if necessary, to develop recommendations for revising the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code and regulatory requirements. Part of the work performed in addressing this goal was the development and demonstration of a method to establish in-service inspection priorities through the use of probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) results. The Oconee-3 PRA and the observed weld failure data of the nuclear plants operating in the United States are used to identify and prioritize the most risk-important systems for inspection. Failure modes and effects analysis methodology is then used to identify and prioritize the most riskimportant piping sections of the Oconee-3 emergency feedwater system. Based on the results of this study, this method is demonstrated to be a useful tool for identifying systems and piping sections or welds that need to be inspected.