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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.
Thomas K. Blanchat, Asimios C. Malliakos
Nuclear Technology | Volume 129 | Number 3 | March 2000 | Pages 356-373
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3067
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Performance tests of a scaled passive autocatalytic recombiner (PAR) were performed in the Surtsey test vessel at Sandia National Laboratories. Measured hydrogen depletion rate data were obtained and compared with previous work. Depletion rate is most likely proportional to PAR scale. PAR performance in steamy environments (with and without hydrophobic coating) was investigated. The tests determined that the PAR startup delay times decrease with increasing hydrogen concentrations in steamy environments. Tests with placement of the PAR near a wall (as opposed to a center location) yielded reduced depletion rates. Tests at low oxygen concentrations also showed a reduced recombination rate. The PAR repeatedly ignited hydrogen at ~6 mol% concentration with a catalyst temperature near 940 K. Velocity data at the PAR exhaust were used to calculate the volumetric flow rate through the PAR as a function of the vessel hydrogen concentration.