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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.
Christopher C. Pain, Cassiano R. E. de Oliveira, Antony J. H. Goddard, Adrian P. Umpleby
Nuclear Technology | Volume 135 | Number 3 | September 2001 | Pages 194-215
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3216
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Numerical modeling of criticality transients in dilute plutonium solutions is presented. The solutions concerned may be expected to have an overall positive temperature coefficient of reactivity at ambient temperatures. Simulations were performed using the FETCH coupled radiation transport-multiphase hydrodynamics code for the cases of step and ramp reactivity insertions. The code has been developed for modeling scenarios beyond the reach of experiment and has been extended to cover the coupling of radiolytic gas behavior and pressure. It is demonstrated that dilute plutonium criticality excursions may be terminated by radiolytic gas evolution provided that the gas is allowed to evolve freely, and that this may result in modest fission yields. However, it is also demonstrated that suppression of radiolytic gas bubbles by pressure may give rise to considerably energetic excursions with consequent large yields.