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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.
Gary R. Smolen, Raymond C. Lloyd, Tomozo Koyama
Nuclear Technology | Volume 107 | Number 3 | September 1994 | Pages 326-339
Technical Paper | Nuclear Criticality Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT94-A35011
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Critical experiments were performed at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory-Critical Mass Laboratory from 1985 to 1987 with mixed Pu+U nitrate solutions in annular geometry. The 25.4-cm-diam central region of the annular vessel contained various inserts, such as a bottle containing fissile solution and borated-concrete and cadmium-covered polyethylene annular inserts. The fissile solution concentrations ranged from 47 to 226g Pu/ℓ with Pu/Pu+U ratios of 1.0, 0.5, and 0.2. The criticality data were used to validate two versions of the SCALE computer code system (SCALE-4 and SCALE-2). The analyses were performed with the 27-energy-group cross-section library, derived from the Evaluated Nuclear Data File B-Version IV. Computer models were prepared to accurately simulate all significant materials that would affect the system reactivity. The average calculated keff for the 18 experiments was 1.008 (σ = 0.006) with SCALE-4 and 1.004 (σ = 0.006) with SCALE-2. Overall, the range of calculated keff’s varied from 0.990 to 1.017. The results of the validation calculations indicate that the SCALE computer code system is capable of accurately modeling Pu+U nitrate. solutions in annular geometry.