AMPERA, Lawrence Livermore lab launch advanced nuclear fuel project
AMPERA announced a strategic partnership project with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop advanced nuclear fuel, including TRISO fuel and thorium-232 kernels.
AMPERA said on Aug. 26, 2026, that it has started a strategic partnership project with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop advanced nuclear fuel for next-generation nuclear systems.
The company said the work is intended to support scalable fuel production for advanced energy systems, including compact and subcritical reactor platforms. AMPERA said it wants a more resilient, cost-effective and sustainable manufacturing path for Tri-Structural Isotropic, or TRISO, fuel, which is used in some advanced reactor designs.
According to the release, the collaboration will draw on joint expertise, equipment, software and other resources. The project will focus on liquid-metal-jetting technology, computational modeling, materials and nozzle compatibility testing, high-temperature process development, particle characterization, safe radiological handling, and the transfer of scalable process and design rules for commercialization.
AMPERA said the work includes evaluating liquid-metal-jetting methods to produce highly uniform, spherical thorium-232 kernels for TRISO fuel. The company said the effort builds on prior LLNL research that used droplet-based liquid-metal-jetting to build a particle production prototype.
The release said LLNL is a U.S. Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration national laboratory. It also said AMPERA’s advanced fuel platform is protected by trade secrets and a patent portfolio that includes more than 60 patents tied to liquid-metal-jetting technology, plus additional patent filings for TRISO fuel manufacturing.
AMPERA said the partnership follows a June announcement about its advanced fuel strategy. The company also said that on July 1 it unveiled what it believes to be the first full-scale additively manufactured demonstration module of its nuclear core architecture, a spherical, monolithic gyroid structure printed in silicon carbide.
LLNL researcher Dr. Viktor Sukhotskiy, identified in the release as a research engineer and principal investigator, said the partnership links the laboratory’s research capabilities with an industry partner and will help mature liquid metal jetting as an advanced manufacturing technology.
AMPERA Founder and CEO Brian Matthews said the collaboration could accelerate the technical foundation needed to vertically integrate the company’s fuel supply, reduce cost and supply-chain risk, and support deployment of its compact subcritical nuclear energy systems.
The company said its subcritical micronuclear reactor platform is being developed for data centers, defense, industrial and maritime applications and is designed to provide compact, factory-built power systems with up to 30 years of operation without refueling.
AMPERA said the project will continue through joint development, characterization and process optimization work tied to future commercialization.
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