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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.
Hiroshi Takahashi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 111 | Number 1 | July 1995 | Pages 149-162
Technical Paper | Enrichment and Reprocessing System | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35153
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Transmutation of minor actinides and long-lived fission products using a proton accelerator has many advantages over a transmutor operated in a critical condition. The energy required for this transmutation can be reduced by multiplying the spallation neutrons in a subcritical assembly surrounding the spallation target. Study was done on the relation between the energy requirements and the multiplication factor k of the subcritical assembly, while varying the range of several parameters in the spallation target. A slightly subcritical reactor is superior to a reactor with large subcriticality in the context of the energy requirement of a small proton accelerator, the extent of radiation damage, and other safety problems. To transmute the longlived fission products without consuming much fissile material, the transmutor reactor must have a good neutron economy, which can be obtained by using a transmutor operated by a proton accelerator. Consideration is given to the use of minor actinides to improve neutronic characteristics, such as achieving a long fuel burnup rather than simply transmuting this valuable material.