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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.
Miaomiao Jin, Jilang Miao
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 199 | Number 1 | April 2025 | Pages S828-S835
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2024.2364455
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The concentration of radiation-induced point defects in general materials under irradiation is commonly described by the point defect kinetics equations based on rate theory. However, the parametric uncertainty in describing the rate constants of competing physical processes, such as recombination and loss to sinks, can lead to a large uncertainty in predicting the time-evolving point defect concentrations. Here, based on perturbation theory, we derive up to the third-order correction to the solution of point defect kinetics equations. This new set of equations enables a full description of continuously changing rate constants and can accurately predict the solution up to 50% deviation in these rate constants. These analyses can also be applied to reveal the sensitivity of the solution to input parameters and aggregated uncertainty from multiple rate constants.