Nuclear ‘Power Balls’ May Make Meltdowns a Thing of the Past
1st July 2020
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.
This appears to be a variant of the existing pebble-bed reactor design.