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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.
Jeffrey E. Woollard, Thomas E. Blue, Nilendu Gupta, Reinhard A. Gahbauer
Nuclear Technology | Volume 115 | Number 1 | July 1996 | Pages 100-113
Technical Paper | Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35279
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Design parameters for an epithermal neutron field for an accelerator-based source of neutrons for boron neutron capture therapy are developed. The parameters that are developed incorporate predicted biological effects in patients’ heads. They are based on an energy-spectrum-dependent neutron normal-tissue relative biological effectiveness and the treatment planning methodology of Gahbauer and his coworkers, which includes the effects of dose fractionation. The neutron field optimization parameters are evaluated for two epithermal neutron fields resulting from an accelerator-based neutron source with two different moderator assemblies. For the two moderator assemblies and moderator thicknesses evaluated, the D2O-Li2CO3 moderator assembly is superior to the BeO-MgO moderator assembly. The absorbed-dose delivered to the tumor for the D2O-Li2CO3 moderator assembly is larger than that for the BeO-MgO moderator assembly for almost all tumor depths. The treatment times for the D2O-Li2CO3 moderator assembly are slightly longer than for the BeO-MgO moderator assembly. However, for a 10-mA proton current, the treatment times for both are reasonable.
