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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.
N. Kumar, R. K. Sharma, V. R. Ganatra, S. K. Mukerjee, V. N. Vaidya, D. D. Sood
Nuclear Technology | Volume 96 | Number 2 | November 1991 | Pages 169-177
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34602
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An internal gelation process has been studied for the preparation of thoria microspheres. The gelation behavior of an acid-deficient thorium nitrate solution (NO3/Th4+ = 3.0) with hexamethylenetetramine and urea has been investigated to define a gelation field diagram that could be used to select compositions suitable for microsphere preparation. Thoria microspheres have been successfully prepared using many different compositions. The process has also been used to prepare (Th,U)O2 microspheres containing 5 and 10 mol% uranium.