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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.
Hee Taek Chae, Jong Hark Park, Heonil Kim, Soon Heung Chang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 148 | Number 3 | December 2004 | Pages 287-293
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3567
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Critical heat flux (CHF) tests using rod bundles were performed under low-flow conditions to supplement the CHF database for HANARO fuel. The test rod had the same geometric configuration as the HANARO fuel, and its aluminum cladding with fins was made by coextrusion on the stainless steel heating tube. Three types of test sections were used: hexagonal with seven rods, triangular with three rods, and rectangular with four rods. Each test bundle has three spacers axially, and a view window is located in the upper region of the test section. Flow patterns until the CHF condition are typically varied from bubbly flow to annular flow, and then CHF occurs through the long annular flow period. A total of 36 bundle CHF data were obtained from the 3 test sections. The results showed that the CHFs for bundles are larger than those for a single rod with the same geometrical dimension by a maximum 26% as the mass flux changes. It is considered that these results are induced by the enhancement of the turbulence and thermal mixing generated by the spacers. In addition, measurement of the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) in the rectangular bundle was attempted using sound signals. A hydrophone was attached near the outlet wall of the test section. Hydrophone signals around the ONB point were measured and analyzed based on the frequency through the real fast Fourier transform. Frequency analysis showed clear differences in the power spectral densities for two different frequency ranges before and after ONB, which verifies the usefulness of sound signals for ONB detection.