Idaho National Laboratory Tests Advanced Thorium Fuel

Clean Core Thorium Energy has announced its new strategic partnership agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy for the testing of Clean Core’s innovative fuel (ANEEL) for nuclear power plants. The testing will be carried out at the Idaho National Laboratory. 

Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life (ANEEL) is a proprietary fuel technology using a combination of thorium and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) to enhance the performance of CANDU reactors and other pressurized heavy-water reactor designs. The ANEEL fuel can be optimized to be used in pressurized heavy-water reactors, boiling reactors, gas cooled reactors, and small modular reactors.  

According to Clean Core Thorium Energy, the combination of thorium and uranium has real advantages since thorium is found more abundantly than uranium on the Earth.  

The ANEEL fuel ensures greater performance decreasing the operating costs of existing reactors. The ANEEL fuel reduces the radioactive waste generation by 87.5% due to the high fuel burnup rate. 

The Idaho National Laboratory expects to begin testing of the ANEEL fuel in their Advanced Test Reactor by the end of 2022 or early 2023.  

It is expected that ANEEL fuel assemblies would produce carbon-free power in commercial CANDU reactors by the end of 2025.  

According to Clean Core Thorium Energy