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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.
Paul W. Humrickhouse, Paul P. H. Wilson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 155 | Number 2 | August 2006 | Pages 166-175
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3754
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A model of the University of Wisconsin Nuclear Reactor has been developed using MCNP5. Benchmarking of the model has centered on available reactor operations data from the original loading of the current TRIGA Fuel Life Improvement Program core, including control element differential worth curves and axial flux maps. By simulating the experimental measurement procedure for control element worth, integral worth values obtained for three control blades are within 6% of measured values. The comparison of simulated and measured axial thermal flux profiles suggests the need to improve the definition of the core temperatures and detailed isotopics. Future plans include modeling full-power (1 MW), high-temperature operation and burnup calculations to obtain current fuel definitions.