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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.
Mohamed S. El-Genk, Cheng Gao
Nuclear Technology | Volume 114 | Number 3 | June 1996 | Pages 351-364
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35239
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Quenching experiments were performed to investigate the effects of radius of curvature and edge angle on pool boiling from downward-facing surfaces in saturated water. The experiments employed two, 20-mm-thick copper test sections that had the same diameter (75 mm) but different surface radii (148 and 218.5 mm) and vapor release (or edge) angles (14.68 and 9.88 deg). The effect of surface area on pool boiling was determined by comparing the present results with the results for a copper section that was of the same thickness but had a surface radius of 148 mm and was less than one-half the surface area. The maximum heat flux (qMHF) was highest at the lowermost position and decreased with increased local inclination on the surface. Both local and surface average qMHF were representative of quasi-steady-state critical heat flux. The high edge angle reduced vapor accumulation, which enhanced surface coolability and shortened its quenching time. For an edge angle of 9.88 deg, increasing the surface area (or surface radius) insignificantly affected the local qMHF near the edge of the copper section but lowered it everywhere else by ∼10%. For the same surface area, the larger edge angle (or smaller surface radius) increased qMHF by as much as 40%.