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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.
Hyung-Kyu Kim, Hyun-Gil Kim, Jae-Ho Yang, Yang-Hyun Koo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 198 | Number 3 | June 2017 | Pages 342-346
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1311591
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The thickness of iron-based accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) cladding is discussed in this technical note because its thickness tends to be reduced from conventional zirconium alloy cladding. Structural stability may be lost if the thickness cannot withstand external pressure. Thus, the minimum allowable thickness of the ATF cladding is studied here from the viewpoint of preventing a cladding collapse. The elastic buckling theory is used to obtain the minimum thickness. The uncertainties of the mechanical properties and dimension tolerances are taken into consideration. The ovality of the cladding is also incorporated. An example calculation is carried out for APMT cladding. It is evaluated that the minimum thickness is 0.45 mm when the safety factor against the buckling is set as 2.0 and 1% of the cladding radius is accommodated for the ovality. A reference guideline of the minimum thickness depending on the mechanical property variation is suggested.