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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.
Y. Bruce Katayama, Langdon K. Holton, Jr., Galen N. Buck, James F. Hutchens, Mark S. Culverhouse
Nuclear Technology | Volume 95 | Number 1 | July 1991 | Pages 44-53
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34566
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A highly contaminated cell in the Pacific Northwest Laboratory’s (PNL) 324 Building Radiochemical Engineering Facilities was recently decontaminated using a series of remote and contact techniques. The approach used in decontaminating the cell was very successful: It resulted in an 87% lower radiation dose to workers and a cost saving of 39% compared with a hands-on procedure used in another cell 2 yr earlier. Eight cycles of remote decontamination, combining use of an alkaline cleaner foam spray and pressurized water rinse, preceded manned entry. Initial radiation readings in cell C, averaging 50 rad/h, were first reduced to <200 mrad/h using remote techniques. Contact decontamination was then permissible using ultrahigh-pressure water at 270 MPa, further reducing the average radiation level in the cell to <86 mrem/h. The radiation dose and the costs to achieve a 244-fold reduction in radiation contamination were 17.8 mrem/m2 and $1033/m2 of cell surface area. This work is part of a larger effort sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Surplus Facilities Management Program to clean out six radioactive cells and to dismantle PNL’s pilot-scale radioactive liquidfed ceramic melter. In this program, numerous other advanced techniques are being developed and are proving valuable, particularly in lowering radiation doses.