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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.
Won-Jin Cho, Sangki Kwon
Nuclear Technology | Volume 177 | Number 2 | February 2012 | Pages 245-256
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13369
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effects of the resaturation process occurring in the buffer on the analysis of temperature distribution in the engineered barrier system of a nuclear waste repository were assessed. The assessment was performed using the TOUGH2 computer code, which analyzes the multidimensional fluid and heat flows of the multiphase, multicomponent fluid mixture in an unsaturated medium. The hydraulic and thermal properties of the buffer, backfill, and near-field rock were measured and were used as input parameters for the analysis. If the resaturation process is considered in the thermal analysis, the disposal density of nuclear waste can be increased up to 30% under the given thermal constraint and site condition. The hydrostatic pressure in the near-field rock will not have an important impact on the resaturation process.