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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.
Sadao Hattori, Tadasu Takuma, Koshichi Nemoto, Masafumi Terada, Tamotsu Sano
Nuclear Technology | Volume 90 | Number 1 | April 1990 | Pages 87-97
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34388
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A flow coupler is considered as an alternative to the conventional primary pump in a liquid-metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR). A conceptual design of a flow coupler combined with an intermediate heat exchanger in a pool-type LMFBR was done. Based on this design, a one-tenth-scale flow coupler model was built and successfully operated in a high-temperature sodium loop. To estimate the flow coupler characteristics, a quasi-one-dimensional code was developed. From these studies, the flow coupler pump concept appears to be feasible for actual use in an LMFBR.