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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.
K. Praveen, M. P. Rajiniganth, A. D. Arun, R. Ananthanarayanan, N. Malathi, P. Sahoo, N. Murali
Nuclear Technology | Volume 176 | Number 1 | October 2011 | Pages 127-137
Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A12547
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We present an unconventional but high-performance differential pressure (DP) monitoring instrument constructed using a new class of sensor, i.e., a pulsating sensor developed in-house. This instrument of unique design is of industrial grade, and it is specially made for online monitoring of pressure in the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), located in Kalpakkam, India. It measures pressure in two different ranges - 0 to 25 mbars (0 to 2.5 kPa) and 0 to 60 mbars (0 to 6.0 kPa) - using two specially designed capacitance-based robust probes made of stainless steel (Type 304L). The performance of this innovative instrument using both probes was thoroughly investigated at ambient room temperature as well as at elevated temperatures (above 30°C to 60°C) in order to assess its suitability for reactor application. The precision, sensitivity, response time, and lowest detection limit of measurement using this pulsating DP monitoring instrument are <0.01 mbars (0.001 kPa), 423 Hz/mbar (4230 Hz/kPa), [approximately]5 s, and 0.07 mbars (0.007 kPa), respectively. The influence of temperature up to 60°C on the measured parameters was found to be insignificant. A calibration technique has been evaluated to calibrate these pressure sensors.