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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.
Tatsuhiko Uda, Hajime Iba, Hiroyuki Tsuchiya
Nuclear Technology | Volume 73 | Number 1 | April 1986 | Pages 109-115
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT86-A16207
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Melt refining as a means of uranium decontamination of metallic wastes was examined. Samples of mild steel, contaminated with uranium, were melted by adding SiO2-CaO-Al2O3 ternary system fluxes. Various melting temperatures and times were used, and the uranium concentrations in the resulting ingots were determined. Flux, and hence slag, composition was found to influence the level of decontamination, but melting temperature and time had little effect. Using the most effective flux composition (10 SiO2-50 CaO-40 Al2O3), uranium concentration was lowered from a contamination level of 500 to 0.027 ppm, a value nearly that of the initial steel before contamination. When the ionic character of slag was defined using basicity [the mole ratio of basic oxide (CaO) to acidic oxide (SiO2 + Al2O3)], the optimum decontamination value was found near a basicity of 1.6. The slag anions of silicate or aluminate seemed to affect the uranium decontamination.