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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.
Werner Maschek, Claus Dieter Munz, Leonhard Meyer
Nuclear Technology | Volume 98 | Number 1 | April 1992 | Pages 27-43
Technical Paper | Fast Reactor Safety / Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT92-A34648
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Analyses of unprotected loss-of-flow accidents for medium-size cores of current liquid-metal fast breeder reactors have shown that the accident proceeds into a transition phase where further meltdown is accompanied by recriticalities and secondary excursions. Assuming very pessimistic conditions concerning fuel discharge and blockage formation, a neutronically active whole-core pool of molten material can form. Neutronic or thermohydraulic disturbances may initiate a special motion pattern in these pools, called centralized sloshing, which can lead to energetic power excursions. If such a whole-core pool is formed, its energetic potential must be adequately assessed. This requires sufficiently correct theoretical tools (codes) and proper consideration of the fluid-dynamic and thermohydraulic conditions of these pools. A series of experiments has been performed that serves as a benchmark for the SIMMER-II and the AFDM codes in assessing their adequacy in modeling such sloshing motions. Additional phenomenologically oriented experiments provide deeper insight into general motion patterns of sloshing fluids while taking special notice of asymmetries and obstacles that exist in such pools.