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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.
Yigal Ronen, Yehoshua Kimhi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 96 | Number 2 | November 1991 | Pages 133-138
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34599
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A “nonproliferating” fuel for light water reactors is proposed. The nonproliferating aspects of the fuel are obtained by increasing the 238Pu/Pu ratio to 5% and above. This limit is maintained during the entire fuel cycle and, in particular, at low burnup values. The high value of the 238Pu/Pu ratio is obtained by introducing 237Np into the fuel. Some waste disposal aspects associated with 237Np are also discussed.