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.
Tsuguyuki Kobayashi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 166 | Number 2 | May 2009 | Pages 134-145
Technical Papers | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A7400
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Design limits on the accumulated decay heat in the molten salt of an electrorefiner (ER) are proposed based on two-dimensional steady-state calculations. It was found that forced convection cooling of the outer surface of the ER allows ~30 to 40% larger decay heat than that for natural circulation cooling. The validity of a steady-state calculation is confirmed by comparison with a one-dimensional non-steady-state calculation. Estimated decay heat limits are compared with that of NaCl resulting from the bonding Na in the spent metallic fuel and the lanthanides concentration in the salt. These comparisons suggest that consideration of the decay heat is very important for the continuous usage of the salt in the ER.