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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.
A. F. Laplace, J. Lacquement, J. L. Willit, R. A. Finch, G. A. Fletcher, M. A. Williamson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 163 | Number 3 | September 2008 | Pages 366-372
Technical Paper | Molten Salt Chemistry and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A3995
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The results from a study of U and Pu metal electrodeposition from molten eutectic LiCl-KCl on a solid inert cathode are presented. This study has been conducted using ~50 g of U-Pu together with rare earths (mostly Nd) and 1.5 kg of salt. The introduction of a three-electrode probe with an Ag/AgCl reference electrode has allowed voltammetric measurement during electrolysis and control of the cathode potential versus the reference. Cyclic and square-wave voltammetric measurements proved to be very useful tools for monitoring the electrolysis as well as selecting the cathode versus reference potential to maximize the separation between actinides and rare earths. The voltammetric data also highlighted the occurrence of back reactions between the cathode deposit and oxidizing equivalents formed at the anode that remained in the molten salt electrolyte. Any further electrolysis test needs to be conducted continuously and followed by immediate removal of the cathode to minimize those back reactions.