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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.
Zhonglu Wang, Stephen F. Kry, Rebecca M. Howell, Mohammad Salehpour
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 610-614
Neutron Measurements | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (PART 3) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9277
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The neutron spectra and ambient dose equivalent were determined by unfolding measured Bonner sphere system data using different unfolding methods. These methods included a maximum entropy method (MAXED code), nonlinear least-squares method (GRAVEL code) with several different starting spectra, and a genetic algorithm method. These algorithms were used to unfold measured Bonner sphere data that had been collected using a LiI(Eu) detector and activation foils. The Bonner sphere system was exposed to neutrons from a known AmBe source and at the proton accelerator facility at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The total fluence rates and total ambient dose equivalents of the neutron field agree within 7.5%, regardless of unfolding algorithm or starting spectrum. In contrast, the fluence-weighted average energy varied dramatically, depending on the starting spectrum used in the unfolding process. These findings offer insight and guidance into the use of unfolding algorithms and starting spectra for neutron spectroscopy.