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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.
Morris F. Osborne, Jack L. Collins, Richard A. Lorenz
Nuclear Technology | Volume 78 | Number 2 | August 1987 | Pages 157-169
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT87-A33994
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fission product release from fully irradiated light water reactor fuel under accident conditions and the chemical forms and behavior of the released material have been studied at high temperatures. This work has emphasized release from commercial fuels, but tracer-level tests using specific fission product species have been used in efforts to clarify chemical behavior. The specimens were heated in an induction furnace in flowing steam at temperatures of 1700 to 2300 K. The fractional releases of krypton, iodine, and cesium increased with temperature, reaching maxima of nearly 60% in 20 min. The release of tellurium varied strongly with the extent of cladding oxidation and approached that of cesium for completely oxidized cladding. In addition to some structural material, the major chemical forms in the furnace effluent appeared to include CsI, CsOH, silver, antimony, and tellurides of cesium and tin. The fractional releases of the volatile fission products correlated with the amount of fuel porosity, and the masses of aerosol collected increased with test temperature and oxidation. Comparison of our results with several fission product release models showed agreement ranging from good to poor.