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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.
Amitzur Z. Barak, Leif Blumenau, H. Branover, A. El-Boher, Ehud Greenspan, E. Spero, S. Sukoriansky
Nuclear Technology | Volume 89 | Number 1 | January 1990 | Pages 36-51
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34357
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Possibilities for increasing efficiency, simplifying the design of the energy conversion system, and reducing the probability of sodium/water interaction in liquid-metal reactors (LMRs) using liquid-metal magnetohydrodynamic (LMMHD) energy conversion technology are investigated. Of the six different LMMHD power conversion systems considered, the LMMHD Rankine steam cycle offers the highest efficiency—up to 15% greater than a conventional LMR. The LMMHD Ericsson gas cycles, on the other hand, offer a significantly simplified and compact LMR plant design. All the LMMHD power conversion systems eliminate the sodium/water interaction problem. In addition to commercial applications, LMMHD energy conversion technology opens interesting new possibilities for special terrestrial as well as space applications of LMRs.
