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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.
Michael D. Zentner, Garill A. Coles, Ike U. Therios
Nuclear Technology | Volume 179 | Number 1 | July 2012 | Pages 70-75
Technical Paper | Special Issue on Safeguards / Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT179-70
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A working group was created in 2002 by the Generation IV International Forum for the purpose of developing an internationally accepted methodology for assessing the proliferation resistance of a nuclear energy system (NES) and its individual elements. A case study was performed by the working group using this methodology to assess the proliferation resistance of a hypothetical NES called the Example Sodium Fast Reactor (ESFR). This work demonstrates how the proliferation resistance assessment methodology can be used to provide important information at various levels of details to NES designers, safeguard administrators, and decision makers. The study analyzed the response of the complete ESFR NES to different proliferation and theft strategies. The challenges considered include concealed diversion, concealed misuse, and "break-out" strategies. This paper describes the work done in performing a qualitative assessment of concealed diversion scenarios from the ESFR.