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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.
John D. Burtt, Louis M. Shotkin, Joseph L. Staudenmeier
Nuclear Technology | Volume 119 | Number 3 | September 1997 | Pages 244-268
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT97-A35401
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Calculations were performed for the same accident scenario in the same power plant geometry using the same version of the RELAP5/MOD3.2 computer code, but each calculation was performed using different user options in the code input deck. The accident scenario analyzed was a 1-in. cold-leg break in the new Westing-house AP600 design. The calculations were analyzed for those key events leading to actuation of the AP600 automatic depressurization system. Three different user choices for plant system noding were used: (a) a detailed noding with a quasi-three-dimensional vessel; (b) a simplified system noding with a quasi-three-dimensional core, lower plenum, and upper plenum, but a simplified downcomer noding; and (c) a detailed system and downcomer noding, but a one-dimensional core, lower plenum, and upper plenum. Two other user options were separately exercised, i.e., shutting off the model for thermal stratification and using different initial temperatures for the core. The discussion focuses on the relative effect of these different user options on flow through the P-loop hot leg, initial reversal in flow through the pressure balance line, timing of draining of the core makeup tanks, and timing of actuation of the automatic depressurization system.