Triso particles are an alien-looking fuel with built-in safety features that will prevent reactor meltdowns

COURTESY OF X ENERGY

Nuclear ‘Power Balls’ May Make Meltdowns a Thing of the Past

Triso— short for “tristructural isotropic”—fuel is made from a mixture of low enriched uranium and oxygen, and it is surrounded by three alternating layers of graphite and a ceramic called silicon carbide. Each particle is smaller than a poppy seed, but its layered shell can protect the uranium inside from melting under even the most extreme conditions that could occur in a reactor.

There are other benefits too. Rather than needing to have miles of open space around a reactor, future plants running on triso fuel could be situated close to their users, Sell says. “It is physically impossible—as in, against the laws of physics—for triso to melt in a reactor,” says Sell. “And when you start with a reactor that can’t melt, your safety case completely changes.”

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Curtiss-Wright and X-energy support deployment of Xe-100 SMR
US-based Curtiss-Wright Corporation) and X-energy have signed a preferred strategic supplier agreement to advance the design and deployment of X-energy’s Xe-100 advanced small modular reactor (SMR).
Pilot Advanced Nuclear Fuel Manufacturing Facility Opens
Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. has opened a pilot fuel manufacturing facility that will produce TRi-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) coated fuel particles and the company’s proprietary fuel for use in its ...
Ensuring A Safe Future For Nuclear Power
In addition to passive cooling, there have been innovations in developing next generation fuel types that are accident tolerant. For example, tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel is made ...
U-Battery selected for advanced modular reactor funding
The company said its U-Battery is powered by accident tolerant TRISO fuel, which prevents the release of radioactive material and minimises the need for back-up shutdown systems. The funding is part ...
Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation and Hyundai Engineering Extend Collaboration to Advance Micro Modular Reactors
We are pleased to help bring this advanced micro reactor technology to the world at a very important time of global energy transition.” — Hyeon Sung Hong, CEO of HEC ...

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Pilot Advanced Nuclear Fuel Manufacturing Facility Opens - POWER magazine
August 25, 2022
Curtiss-Wright and X-energy support deployment of Xe-100 SMR - Nuclear Engineering
September 21, 2022
X-energy considers further development of high-temperature gas reactor - Nuclear Engineering
August 25, 2022
Ensuring A Safe Future For Nuclear Power - Forbes
September 12, 2022
Oklo Relaunches NRC Licensing Process for Nuclear Microreactor - POWER magazine
September 20, 2022

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Tristructural isotropic fuel

"Radioactive Gobstoppers" Could Stop the Next Nuclear Reactor Meltdown
Wired reports that the poppy-seed-sized balls, dubbed Triso fuel (tristructural isotropic particle), are low enriched uranium and oxygen surrounded by a shell of graphite and ceramic. The design ...