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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.
Güngör Gündüz, İbrahım Uslu, Hasan H. Durmazuçar
Nuclear Technology | Volume 116 | Number 1 | October 1996 | Pages 78-90
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35313
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Pure urania- and urania-gadolinia-containing fuel pellets were coated with boron nitride (BN) to improve the physical and neutronic properties of the fuel. The BN coating seems to have a technological advantage over zirconium-diboride coating. The BN is chemically inert, corrosion resistant, withstands rapid temperature changes, and has a high thermal conductivity. Since gadolinia fuel has low thermal conductivity, the gad-olinia content can be lowered in the fuel by coating it with BN. In fact, the existence of two burnable absorbers in a fuel introduces desired nuclear properties since gadolinia is a fast-burning and boron a slow-burning element. The BN was deposited on fuel from two different sources, (a) from the reaction of boron trichloride (BCl3) and ammonia (NH3) at 875 K and (b) from the decomposition of trimethylamine borate complex at 1200 K. The infrared and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra of BN from both precursors agreed with the available data in the literature. However BN powder from borane complex had a shifted XRD peak due to the presence of carbonaceous material in the structure. The BN powder-coated fuels were heated to 1400,1525, and 1600 K to sinter the BN. The examination under scanning electron microscope showed that grainy, rodshaped and layered BN coatings were achieved. Rodshaped structures were usually seen on gadolinia fuels. The increased thickness of coating favors the formation of a glassy looking layer. The BN from a borane complex seems to form a layered structure more easily than the BN from BCl3. The BN coated the surface of the fuels, and it did not penetrate into the fuels.