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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.
Maman Kartaman Ajiriyanto, Aslina Br. Ginting, Sungkono, Supardjo, Juan Carlos Sihotang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 211 | Number 5 | May 2025 | Pages 953-962
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2365485
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Post-irradiation examination (PIE) of a low-enriched-uranium silicide fuel plate, irradiated in the Indonesian Reaktor Serba Guna–Gerrit Augustinus Siwabessy (RSG-GAS) multipurpose reactor, was successfully conducted. The objective of the PIE project was to evaluate the performance and integrity of the fuel under radiation exposure and, furthermore, to explore the potential for increasing the burnup level, enhancing its efficiency and effectiveness. The targeted fuel plate, identified as IDA0045, was extracted from the experimental silicide fuel element RI-SIE2, which had a burnup level of approximately 56% loss of 235U. A scanning electron microscope combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy microstructural examination and a Vickers microhardness test were conducted for the top, middle, and bottom sections of the fuel. The PIE results indicated minimal occurrence of fuel swelling and good fuel integrity under irradiation, suggesting the possibility of increasing the burnup level.