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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.
Shunsuke Uchida, Masanori Naitoh, Hidetoshi Okada, Taku Ohira, Seiichi Koshizuka, Derek H. Lister
Nuclear Technology | Volume 178 | Number 3 | June 2012 | Pages 280-297
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13594
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A six-step evaluation procedures have been proposed to evaluate the local wall thinning due to flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) and that due to liquid droplet impingement (LDI). Corrosive conditions were calculated with a N2H4-O2 reaction analysis code. Precise flow turbulence at major parts of the system was analyzed with the three-dimensional computational flow dynamics code to obtain mass transfer coefficients at structure surfaces. Then, wall thinning rates were calculated with the coupled model of electrochemical analysis and oxide layer growth analysis by applying the corrosive conditions and the mass transfer coefficients.To apply computer simulation codes for wall thinning due to FAC and LDI to evaluate residual life and the effectiveness of countermeasures, accuracy and applicability of the codes were confirmed based on verification and validation processes. From comparison of the calculated wall thinning rates due to FAC with hundreds of measured results for secondary piping of an actual pressurized water reactor plant, it was confirmed that the calculated wall thinning rates agreed with the measured ones within a factor of 2 and the accuracy of the evaluation model for residual pipe wall thickness after 1 year of operation had an error of <20%. Finally, just the FAC simulation code was applied to evaluate the effects of oxygen injection into the feedwater line.From comparison of the calculated wall thinning rates due to LDI with measured results for vent lines of an actual boiling water reactor plant, it was confirmed that the calculated local wall thinning rates agreed with the measured ones within about a factor of 2, though there were still some outside that region.