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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.
V. Shepelin, D. Koshmanov, E. Chepelin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 178 | Number 1 | April 2012 | Pages 29-38
Technical Paper | Safety and Technology of Nuclear Hydrogen Production, Control, and Management / Hydrogen Safety and Recombiners | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13545
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The structure of the catalyst used in a passive autocatalytic recombiner (PAR) is crucial for making the PAR reliably functional in environments of high humidity and for concentrations of hydrogen above 8 to 10 vol %. The temperature of the catalyst has to be kept below 500°C to avoid the autoignition of hydrogen. A new type of catalyst for the PAR, a hydrophobic catalyst on a low porous metal carrier with a screen [HCm(screen)], was designed by Russian Energy Technologies. It consists of a porous Ti plate with the adsorbtion metal Pt. The surface of the catalyst was completely covered by a metal grid. In a series of tests with different small-scale PARs, the HCm(screen) catalyst was found to function under concentrations of hydrogen up to at least 20 vol %. The effects of mass and heat transfer processes (Fick diffusion, Knudsen diffusion, and Stefan flow) on the thermal regime and characteristics of the working catalyst are discussed. Metal grids of dense weaving appear to be the most suitable for a screen because they have a double function: removing the heat and acting as a gas separation membrane enriching with hydrogen the gas mix in the zone of the catalytic reaction.