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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.
Donald J. Reif
Nuclear Technology | Volume 83 | Number 2 | November 1988 | Pages 190-196
Technical Paper | Chemical Processing | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34160
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Solvent extraction processes are used to recover usable nuclear materials from unwanted fission products at the Savannah River Plant. During use, the tri-n-butyl phosphate in an n-paraffm hydrocarbon solvent is degraded due to hydrolysis and radiolysis, forming materials that influence product losses, product decontamination, and separation efficiencies. The solvent is recycled after cleaning with a sodium carbonate solution. Savannah River Laboratory work has shown that carbonate washing does not remove more solvent-soluble binding ligands (formed by solvent degradation), which extract fission products into the solvent. Activated alumina treatment of carbonate-washed solvent removes binding ligands and significantly improves recycled solvent performance. A laboratory-developed, side-stream-activated alumina process was scaled up to clean 16500 gal of first-cycle solvent. The improved solvent fission product rejection returned the Savannah River Plant Canyon process to normal productivity and reduced process salt waste by increasing the solvent wash solution use-life.