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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.
Valerii Palkin, Eugene Maslyukov
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 196 | Number 9 | September 2022 | Pages 1091-1100
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2045146
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The paper offers a double-cascade scheme for reducing the concentration of 232, 234, 236U isotopes in reprocessed uranium hexafluoride. The greatest decrease of the ratio between the masses of 236U and 235U is provided in the product of the first ordinary cascade enriched by 235U at the concentration of less than 20%. For this purpose, a special mode of stages operation is determined. Enrichment by 232, 234U is performed in the second ordinary cascade, which is fed by the product of the first cascade. After being purified from 232, 234U, the waste flow is diluted till the concentration of 235U is less than 5%. This paper describes the methodology for calculating the parameters of cascades with the stage separation factors correlating with gas centrifuges. This methodology served as a basis for a computational experiment. It is demonstrated that the output gained after the dilution meets the requirements of the American Society for Testing and Materials C996-20 specification for the commercial grade of low-enriched uranium hexafluoride in terms of 232, 234U isotopes. The content of 236U in it is several times less than during the direct enrichment of reprocessed uranium hexafluoride.