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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.
Alireza Sedaghat, Frank S. Castellana, Robert H. Hsu, Robert B. Macduff
Nuclear Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | March 1988 | Pages 360-370
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34060
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Diversion cross flow was characterized from a two-subchannel simulation of a nuclear fuel assembly using a gamma camera. The gamma camera allowed external monitoring over the length of the test assembly, thereby eliminating experimental problems associated with flow partitioning and an isokinetic withdrawal system, allowing the possibility of noninvasive measurement. The experiment was performed by providing fixed but different flow rates to each subchannel. The higher mass flow rate stream was traced with a gamma-emitting radionuclide, 99mTc pertechnetate. Activity in each subchannel was measured by the camera. Diversion length was found to be relatively small and strongly dependent on gap spacing. Effective lateral velocity through the gap was also evaluated. With some exceptions, the results were in good agreement with the predictions of the subchannel analysis computer code COBRA IIIC. At a high inlet axial mass velocity ratio of 4, however, the agreement with the prediction was poor.