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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.
Hideo Nagasaka, Takashi Sato, Hirohide Oikawa, Ryoichi Hamazaki, Kenji Arai, Takao Kageyama, Hiroyuki Yoshida, Hiroshi Machiba
Nuclear Technology | Volume 92 | Number 2 | November 1990 | Pages 260-268
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34477
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The TOSBWR-900P, a natural-circulation boiling water reactor design with 300-MW(electric) power emphasizing passive safety, is studied. The TOSBWR-900P has steam drums above the pressure vessel that minimize the lower drywell volume associated with a top-mounted gravity-driven control rod device. The flow to the core is controlled by the valves on the downcomer pipes. The emergency core cooling system consists of high- and low-pressure accumulators, a gravity-driven core cooling system, and an automatic depressurization system, which guard against core uncovery in case of a design-basis accident. Long-term decay heat removal is achieved passively by a drywell water wall. The gravity-driven drywell spray water can completely flood the reactor pressure vessel during a severe core damage accident.