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NRC approves TerraPower construction permit
Today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that it has approved TerraPower’s construction permit application for Kemmerer Unit 1, the company’s first deployment of Natrium, its flagship sodium fast reactor.
This approval is a significant milestone on three fronts. For TerraPower, it represents another step forward in demonstrating its technology. For the Department of Energy, it reflects progress (despite delays) for the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). For the NRC, it is the first approval granted to a commercial reactor in nearly a decade—and the first approval of a commercial non–light water reactor in more than 40 years.
Patrick F. O’Rourke, Scott D. Ramsey, Brian A. Temple
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 196 | Number 8 | August 2022 | Pages 943-981
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2035180
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this work, we apply Lie Group Theory (LGT) to aid in solving and understanding equations arising from the Forward Master Equation formulation for the neutron number distribution in a zero-dimensional setting. In particular, we focus our LGT study on a first-order hyperbolic partial differential equation satisfied by the probability generating function. We show the connection between solutions to the symmetry determining equations with established analytical solutions given by Bell and by Prinja and Souto. We derive global transformations for isolated neutron fission chains as well as neutron sources and provide a physical interpretation of the results throughout.