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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.
Smaeil M. Aceil, Doyle R. Edwards
Nuclear Technology | Volume 93 | Number 2 | February 1991 | Pages 123-130
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34498
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A model correlating the minimum critical power ratio (MCPR) of standardized boiling water reactors (BWRs) to a set of thermal-hydraulic variables in parameter space is developed. A statistical approach with fractional factorial sampling along with response surface methodology and orthogonal central composite design are employed. The COBRA-II computer code, after modifications to include MCPR calculation, is used to simulate the thermal hydraulics of the BWR/6. The sensitivity is obtained by differentiating a quadratic equation that represents the state of the system with respect to its constituent variables. Taking this correlation as a joint multivariable probability distribution function and using crude Monte Carlo integration techniques, the probability of boiling transition during normal operation in a standardized BWR/6 is estimated. The result agrees very well with data available in open literature.