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.
Akihiko Inoue
Nuclear Technology | Volume 90 | Number 2 | May 1990 | Pages 186-190
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34413
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method for reprocessing uranium and plutonium mixed-oxide fuel, including uranium dioxide fuel, is presented. The method is based on the oxidation process of the fuel and the dissolution of pulverized fuels (U3O8 and PuO2) in nitric acid. To dissolve Pu02, a uranous nitrate solution prepared from uranyl nitrate by electrolytic reduction is utilized. This reprocessing method has an economic advantage over the conventional Purex process because it does not use an expensive solvent extraction process to separate uranium, plutonium, and fission products. The cost of the process is estimated to be 80% that of the Purex process, and the cost of refabrication does not change greatly because remote operation is not needed. This process also has an advantage over the Purex process from the viewpoint of the diversion resistance of nuclear material because pure plutonium cannot be recovered in the process.