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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.
Stella Maris Oggianu, Hee Cheon No, Mujid S. Kazimi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 146 | Number 3 | June 2004 | Pages 221-229
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3501
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To evaluate the burnup potential of a fuel pin, a simplified fuel rod analysis code called FUEL-SIMplified model (FUELSIM) was developed using the general-purpose software VENSIM. FUELSIM is based on FRAPCON-3 models and validated against it. A sensitivity analysis was done using FUELSIM to determine the fuel parameters that have high importance in limiting the burnup potential of a fuel material. Among 16 parameters, 10 were identified as having high importance. For six fuel materials (uranium metal, UC, UN, Th/U metal, UO2/ThO2 fuels, and UO2), a simplified model for the pressure rise and volumetric changes inside the fuel is developed to estimate the operational index of each fuel; these models include only the variables with high importance. It was found that the highest burnup potential is that of the nitride fuel, followed by the UO2/ThO2 fuel.
