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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.
W. M. Stacey, V. L. Beavers, W. A. Casino, J. R. Cheatham, Z. W. Friis, R. D. Green, W. R. Hamilton, K. W. Haufler, J. D. Hutchinson, W. J. Lackey, R. A. Lorio, J. W. Maddox, J. Mandrekas, A. A. Manzoor, C. A. Noelke, C. de Oliveira, M. Park, D. W. Tedder, M. R. Terry, E. A. Hoffman
Nuclear Technology | Volume 150 | Number 2 | May 2005 | Pages 162-188
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT05-A3614
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A design is presented for a subcritical, He-cooled fast reactor, driven by a tokamak D-T fusion neutron source, for the transmutation of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The reactor is fueled with coated transuranic (TRU) particles and is intended for the deep-burn (>90%) transmutation of the TRUs in SNF without reprocessing of the coated fuel particles. The reactor design is based on the materials, fuel, and separations technologies under near-term development in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Program and on the plasma physics and fusion technologies under near-term development in the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Program, with the objective of intermediate-term (~2040) deployment. The physical and performance characteristics and research and development requirements of such a reactor are described.
