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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.
Todd K. Campbell, Edgar Robert Gilbert, Cheryl Knox Thornhill, Bernard J. Wrona
Nuclear Technology | Volume 84 | Number 2 | February 1989 | Pages 182-195
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34186
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To support dry storage technology, oxidation tests were conducted with light water reactor spent fuel. The initial rate of weight gain for spent fuel was up to 50 times greater than the initial rate for nonirradiated pellets. Spent fuel formed measurable U4O9+x particulates at weight gains significantly higher than those at which the nonirradiated pellets formed U3O8 powder. Initial test results on three types of pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent fuel indicated that fuel type had a significant influence on weight gain. Additional tests were performed at temperature levels from 135 to 230°C on fuel with burnups from 8 to 34 GWd/ tonne U irradiated in five different reactors. The tests were conducted in static air at controlled moisture levels in a 105 R/h gamma field. In the 230°C tests, weight gains for PWR and boiling water reactor (BWR) fuels exceeded 4 wt% after 4000 h of exposure. Powder formation time on BWR fuels increased with increasing burnup; weight gain magnitudes were independent of fuel burnup.
