ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 15–18, 2026
Phoenix, AZ|Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
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.
Hiromasa Iida, Yuichi Ishizaka, Yeong-Chan Kim, Chouichi Yamaguchi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 107 | Number 1 | July 1994 | Pages 38-48
Technical Paper | Special on ANP ’92 Conference / Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT94-A34996
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The deep-sea reactor X (DRX) is a small nuclear plant designed to provide undersea power sources. It has the full advantages of nuclear reactors and can provide large power capacity and does not require oxygen for power production. An application conceivable in the near future is that for a submersible. The Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute is conducting a design study of a 150-kW(electric) DRX plant for a deep-sea research vessel. It has a so-called “integrated pressurized water reactor,” having a steam generator inside the reactor vessel. A pressure shell includes a turbine and a generator as well as a reactor vessel, resulting in a very compact electricity producing plant. It should be easy to operate and have high passive safety characteristics; namely, a short startup time, good reactor response to power demand changes, and passive core flooding and decay heat removal in case of an accident. Transient analyses including those for load follow-up, reactor startup, and accidents have been conducted. The results show that the DRX has excellent inherent characteristics satisfying those requirements.