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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.
B. Cazalis, J. Desquines, C. Poussard, M. Petit, Y. Monerie, C. Bernaudat, P. Yvon, X. Averty
Nuclear Technology | Volume 157 | Number 3 | March 2007 | Pages 215-229
Technical Paper | Reactivity-Initiated Accident (RIA) | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3814
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An assessment of the mechanical properties of the highly irradiated fuel claddings under high strain rate has been carried out in the framework of the PROMETRA program undertaken by the French Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire in collaboration with Electricité de France and Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA). Three types of tests, including burst tests, hoop and axial tensile tests, have been performed at CEA-Saclay hot laboratories to determine the cladding tensile properties to use in the SCANAIR code. The prototypicality of each test with regard to the reactivity-initiated accident loading conditions can be addressed and analyzed in terms of strain or stress ratio. The high-strain-rate ductile mechanical properties of irradiated ZIRLO and M5 alloys derived from the PROMETRA program and their comparison to the stress-relieved irradiated Zircaloy-4 are reported. Then, the clad brittle behavior, in particular for highly corroded or spalled Zircaloy-4 cladding, is investigated.