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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.
E. Wilson Okyere, Anthony J. Baratta, William A. Jester
Nuclear Technology | Volume 96 | Number 3 | December 1991 | Pages 272-289
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34589
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A variety of water level measurement systems are proposed to resolve the problem of reactor vessel level measurement. Two such systems, the heated thermocouple and the multiple differential pressure cell system, are used commercially. A third system based on ex-core neutron detectors was tested at The Pennsylvania State University Breazeale nuclear reactor facility and at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Loss-of-Fluid Test Facility. Results of these tests show that such a system is sensitive to both large- and small-break loss-of-coolant accidents and to voiding in the upper plenum of the vessel.