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.
W. M. Stacey, K. A. Boakye, S. K. Brashear, A. C. Bryson, K. A. Burns, E. J. Bruch, S. A. Chandler, O. M. Chen, S. S. Chiu, J.-P. Floyd, C. J. Fong, S. P. Hamilton, P. B. Johnson, S. M. Jones, M. Kato, B. A. MacLaren, R. P. Manger, B. L. Meriwether, C. Mitra, K. R. Riggs, B. H. Shrader, J. C. Schulz, C. M. Sommer, T. S. Sumner, J. S. Wagner, J. B. Weathers, C. P. Wells, F. H. Willis, Z. W. Friis, J. I. Marquez-Danian, R. W. Johnson, C. de Oliveira, H. K. Park, D. W. Tedder
Nuclear Technology | Volume 159 | Number 1 | July 2007 | Pages 72-105
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3857
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The design concept for a subcritical, He-cooled, fast reactor, fueled with transuranics (TRUs) from spent nuclear fuel in coated TRISO particles and driven by a tokamak D-T fusion neutron source, is being developed at Georgia Institute of Technology. The basic concept has been developed in two previous papers. This paper reports (a) advances in the design concept intended to enable achievement of "deep-burn" of the TRUs and passive safety, (b) investigations of the possibility of reprocessing the TRISO TRU fuel and of extending the strength of the fusion neutron source, (c) more extensive analyses to confirm and improve the design with respect to the adequacy of the fuel and nuclear performance, heat removal, tritium self-sufficiency and shielding, (d) more extensive analyses to confirm that the International Tokamak Experimental Reactor divertor, magnet and heating/current drive systems can be adapted, and (e) fuel cycle analyses to further investigate the contribution that such a reactor could make to closing the nuclear fuel cycle.