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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.
Seungho Paik
Nuclear Technology | Volume 128 | Number 1 | October 1999 | Pages 87-102
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A3016
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A heat conduction enclosure model is conceived and implemented by RELAP5-3D between heat structures. The suggested model uses a lumped parameter model that is generally applicable to multidimensional calculational domain. This new model is applied to calculation of RBMK reactor core graphite blocks and is compared to the commercially available Fluid Dynamics Analysis Package (FIDAP) finite element code. Reasonably good agreement between the results of RELAP5-3D and FIDAP is obtained. The new heat conduction enclosure model gives RELAP5-3D a general multidimensional heat conduction capability. It also provides new routes for temperature cooloff of the RBMK graphite blocks from the ruptured channel to the surrounding ones. This ability to predict graphite temperature cooloff is very important during accidents or for transient simulation, especially concerning long-term coolability of the RBMK reactor core.