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 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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.
Michio Sadatomi, Akimaro Kawahara, Tsukasa Kuno, Keiko Kano
Nuclear Technology | Volume 152 | Number 1 | October 2005 | Pages 23-37
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT152-23
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To improve a void drift model used in a subchannel analysis, new experimental data are obtained for air-water two-phase flows in a vertical 2 × 3 rod channel consisting of six subchannels simulating a square array boiling water reactor fuel rod bundle. The data include the axial redistributions of flow rates of both phases and void fraction in the respective subchannels. By fitting the above data with the Lahey and Moody void settling model, we have determined a void diffusion coefficient in their model. It is found that the void diffusion coefficient for slug, churn, and annular flows could be well correlated in terms of a turbulent Peclet number developed in our previous study. Furthermore, a subchannel analysis code based on a two-fluid model proposed in our previous study is examined against the present data. In the code, the void settling model is incorporated with usual conservation equations of mass and momentum. From the examination, it is found that the subchannel analysis code can predict well the data on subchannel flow and void fraction for the 2 × 3 rod channel if appropriate correlations are adopted to evaluate wall and interfacial friction forces needed in the two-fluid model.