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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.
Adam G. Nelson, Nicolas Martin, Alisha Kasam-Griffith, Zhiwen Xu, Florent Heidet
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 196 | Number 1 | October 2022 | Pages S63-S70
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2035181
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) is being developed to provide a flexible source of neutrons for the accelerated testing of materials. To support this flexibility, the design must be informed by uncertainty assessment that defensibly provides the needed margin. This paper provides an overview of the VTR Program’s approach to the generation and application of uncertainties in the reactor core design process as it relates to this goal. As the uncertainty assessment is still in progress, this paper not only provides an example of how uncertainty has been factored into the early stages of design but also provides findings from sensitivity studies that will form the basis of future uncertainty work.