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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.
Taira Hazama, Akihiro Kitano, Y. Kishimoto
Nuclear Technology | Volume 179 | Number 2 | August 2012 | Pages 250-265
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A14097
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Japanese prototype fast breeder reactor Monju restarted its system startup test in May 2010 after a 14-year interruption. In the first stage of the test, reactor physics parameters have been measured at a zero power level.The present paper describes the evaluation of the criticality data. The best-estimate value and its uncertainty are evaluated as accurately as possible, following the guidelines recommended by the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project.The restart core contains 1.5 wt% of 241Am, which is three times more than the previous test. To extract the influence of the 241Am accumulation on calculation accuracy, criticality data obtained in the previous test are evaluated at the same level of detail.The calculation accuracy is investigated with four major nuclear data libraries. It is confirmed that the accuracy is within 0.3% k/k, a 2 value of experimental uncertainty, with JENDL-3.3, JENDL-4.0, and ENDF/B-VII.0. The reactivity change due to the 241Pu decay can be simulated within an accuracy of 1% with JENDL-4.0 and JEFF-3.1.