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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.
Kyle L. Walton, Raymond K. Maynard, Tushar K. Ghosh, Robert V. Tompson, Dabir S. Viswanath, Sudarshan K. Loyalka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 5 | May 2019 | Pages 684-693
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1521177
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Total hemispherical emissivity of Alloy 617 was measured for applications in very high temperature reactors with apparatus based on ASTM Standard C835-06. The emissivity data were obtained for the following surface conditions: (1) as-received (rolled sheets) from manufacture, (2) sandblasted with aluminum oxide beads, (3) oxidation in air at temperature of 1153 K, and (4) coated with graphite powder. For the as-received Alloy 617, emissivity increased from 0.26 to 0.34 over the temperatures 593 K to 1164 K. Sandblasting Alloy 617 with alumina beads increased the emissivity to 0.46 to 0.73 in the temperature range 600 to 1300 K (emissivity increased further when higher grit size beads were used). The oxidation of Alloy 617 gave a slight increase in emissivity from 900 to 1250 K with larger increases above 1100 K. Coating of graphite onto as-received and 60-grit sandblasted increased the emissivity by roughly 0.12 and 0.20, respectively, over the measured temperature range.