Agreement on testing of thorium fuels
Thorium Power of the USA announced on 31 December that it had reached a new formal agreement with Russia's Kurchatov Institute relating to the irradiation testing program for Thorium Power's thorium-based nuclear fuel designs. The program has been ongoing since 2002. The agreement assigns to Thorium Power the worldwide rights, title and interest in and to the technical data generated from the ampoule irradiation testing of seed and blanket fuel samples in the Kurchatov research reactor over the past two years. Thorium Power executive vice president Andrey Mushakov, said: "Ampoule irradiation testing is a critical long lead time activity in our comprehensive program of technology testing and demonstration activities and it is a vital process that new fuel designs must perform as part of a fuel qualification and regulatory licensing process. The ampoule irradiation testing work continues as expected at the Kurchatov Institute, and this agreement formalizes our rights to valuable technical data necessary for regulatory licensing of our commercial fuel designs."
Further information
WNA's Thorium information paper
WNN: US and Russian companies make thorium fuel alliance
WNN: Thorium passes tests
