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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.
Bernard R. Bandini, Anthony J. Baratta, Victor R. Fricke
Nuclear Technology | Volume 81 | Number 3 | June 1988 | Pages 370-380
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A16058
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Since the March 1979 accident, the source range monitors (SRMs) at Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) have been reading several orders of magnitude higher than would be expected in a normal shutdown core. A study in which these anomalous SRM readings are analyzed and the cause determined is reported. Here, the DOT 4.3 two-dimensional transport code was used to simulate the SRM response and the response of an axial string of solid-state track recorders by modeling the neutronics of the damaged TMI-2 core. This modeling has indicated the presence of ∼10 tonnes of fuel material in the lower vessel plenum, a condition that was subsequently verified by direct observation. The computational model, the method of cross-section preparation, and an analysis of the various core neutron sources are described, as well as the results obtained from this effort.