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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.
Kazuo Haga, Yoshihiro Kikuchi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 70 | Number 2 | August 1985 | Pages 220-234
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33646
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A series of experiments was performed to assess the thermal effect of a burst-type fission gas release from fuel pins. Simulated fission product gas was injected continuously and transiently from the central pin of a 37-pin bundle. The opposite pin surface impinged on by the released gas showed an extreme temperature rise under high coolant-flow conditions. Comparison of measured temperature change data with analytical results by a simple computer code revealed that the ratios of the heat transfer coefficient after gas injection to those of sodium single-phase flow were in the range of 0.05 to 0.15, irrespective of the magnitude of the gas plenum pressure and the nozzle diameter. The estimated pin-surface temperature increased by gas release in actual reactor operating conditions was less than the saturation temperature of sodium. The measured pressure pulse at the transient gas release was <0.2 times the initial gas plenum pressure.