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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.
Mitsuru Kambe
Nuclear Technology | Volume 128 | Number 1 | October 1999 | Pages 12-24
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A3010
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A 60-MW(electric) fast reactor concept, RAPID-A, without any control rods has been shown to achieve inherent safety and highly automated reactor operation and to provide reactivity control systems with maintenance-free and reliable performance over the plant design lifetime. RAPID-A is one of the variants of the refueling by all pins integrated design (RAPID), fast reactor concept, which enables quick and simplified refueling 2 months after reactor shutdown. In addition to the aforementioned advantages, unique challenges in reactivity control system design have been attempted in the RAPID-A concept. The design involves the following innovative reactivity control systems: lithium expansion modules for inherent reactivity feedback, lithium injection modules for inherent ultimate shutdown, and lithium release modules for automated reactor startup.