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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.
W. J. Mills
Nuclear Technology | Volume 82 | Number 3 | September 1988 | Pages 290-303
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34130
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The postirradiation fracture toughness responses of Types 316 and 304 stainless steel wrought products, cast CF8 stainless steel, and Type 308 stainless steel weld deposit were characterized at 427°C using JR curve techniques. Fast neutron irradiation of these alloys caused an order-of-magnitude reduction in Jc and two-orders-of-magnitude reduction in the tearing modulus at neutron exposures above 10 dpa, where radiation-induced losses in toughness appeared to saturate. Saturation Jc values for the wrought materials ranged from 28 to 31 kJ/m2; the weld exhibited a saturation level of 11 kJ/m2. Maximum allowable flaw sizes for highly irradiated stainless steel components stressed to 90% of the unirradiated yield strength are on the order of 3 cm for the wrought material and 1 cm for the weld. Electron fractographic examination revealed that irradiation displacement damage brought about a transition from ductile microvoid coalescence to channel fracture, associated with local separation along planar deformation bands. The lower saturation toughness value for the weld relative to that for the wrought products was attributed to local failure of ferrite particles ahead of the advancing crack that prematurely initiated channel fracture.