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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.
Daniel Magallon, Hermann Hohmann, Hubert Schins
Nuclear Technology | Volume 98 | Number 1 | April 1992 | Pages 79-90
Technical Paper | Fast Reactor Safety / Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT92-A34652
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Two experiments known as Tl and T2 are performed in the test section TERMOS of the FARO facility. Quantities of the order of 100 kg of molten pure UO2 ∼3000°C are poured into 130 kg of sodium at 400°C and 0.1 MPa contained in a 0.28-m-diam test tube over a height of 2.5 m. The tests show a melt delivery rate twice as high in T2 as in Tl. Because of the large scale of the experiment, the tests reveal new features concerning this type of interaction. Particularly, fuel/coolant interaction (FCI) occurs that induces stepwise penetration and dispersion of the melt, and a limitation of the melt quantity that could penetrate into the sodium. Sodium pressure peaks up to 6.0 MPa and pressurizations of the 0.150-m3 gas phase blanket up to 0.8 MPa are recorded. These FCIs are interpreted as vapor explosions in nearly saturated sodium. Quantities of 60 kg for Tl and 45 kg for T2 of UO2 fragments are collected in the debris catcher located at the bottom of the test tube. A debris bed structure resulting from this type of interaction is identified and characterized. Porosity is almost constant all over the bed height while permeability increases by a factor of 30 when going from the top to the bottom of the bed.