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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.
A. K. Sengupta, J. Banerjee, T. Jarvis, T. R. G. Kutty, K. Ravi, S. Majumdar
Nuclear Technology | Volume 142 | Number 3 | June 2003 | Pages 260-269
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3388
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Hyperstoichiometric uranium-plutonium mixed carbide fuel (U0.3Pu0.7)C1+x has been the driver fuel for the sodium-cooled Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) at Kalpakkam, India. The existing core is being slowly expanded by substituting the earlier fuel with hyperstoichiometric (U0.45Pu0.55)C1+x fuel for operation of the reactor at full power [40 MW(thermal)] and at higher linear heat rating of the fuel. To evaluate the fuel in terms of its in-reactor performance, some of the important out-of-pile thermophysical and thermomechanical property data like the coefficient of thermal expansion, thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, and hot hardness have been generated as a function of temperature. The out-of-pile chemical compatibility of the fuel with Type 316 stainless steel (20% cold-worked) cladding material has also been established experimentally. From the data generated in these measurements, it has been concluded that with this fuel the reactor could be operated at full power with a fuel linear heat rating of 400 W/cm. Out-of-pile compatibility experiments indicate that carburization of the clad by carbon transfer from the fuel would not be severe to cause any breach of clad during the residence time of the fuel in the reactor.