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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.
Jan-Li Wang, Jay F. Kunze
Nuclear Technology | Volume 85 | Number 3 | June 1989 | Pages 285-293
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34250
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The RELAP5 thermal-hydraulic transient code has been applied to a reactor safety analysis of a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) to a reactor with thin fuel plates operating at highly subcooled conditions, ∼75°C below boiling temperatures at operating pressure, 25°C below boiling conditions at atmosphere pressure that occurs immediately following the LOCA. Depressurization is not the critical issue in this case, but plate boiling and reflooding and mixing of vapor and fluid streams are the critical aspects of the calculation. The analysis of the results shows the sensitivity of the calculation to the time periods of the steam “chugging” effects in the water channels between fuel plates. This MOD2 version is the first version with which we found consistency and realism in the results calculated for these very difficult transient conditions.