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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.
Mária Chromčíková, Jana Vokelová, Jaroslava Michálková, Marek Liška, Jan Macháček, Ondrej Gedeon, Vojtech Soltész
Nuclear Technology | Volume 193 | Number 2 | February 2016 | Pages 297-305
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-22
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The chemical durability of gamma-irradiated glass fibrous insulation commonly used in the reactor containment of nuclear power plants was tested by static leaching tests at 90°C. Distilled water and borate coolant solution were used as corrosive media. Two radiation doses, 2 and 4 MGy, were applied, the higher one roughly corresponding to 30 years of irradiation in reactor containment. The glass insulation was irradiated at low (70°C) and increased (450°C) temperatures. The results of the static leaching tests were compared with those obtained for nonirradiated native glass fibers. In distilled water, higher normalized leached amounts of calcium were found for low-temperature-irradiated glass fibers and in the initial stage of leaching of high-temperature-irradiated glass fibers; the lower normalized leached amounts were found for boron for glasses irradiated at both temperatures. In the borate coolant solution, higher normalized leached amounts of calcium and lower leached amounts of aluminum were observed for glasses irradiated at both temperatures. In all cases, the results were comparable for both applied radiation doses. Moreover, extraordinary brittleness of the glass fibers irradiated at high temperature was observed. This principally new finding needs further experimental and theoretical investigation.