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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.
Noah A. Weichselbaum, Shadman Hussain, Morteza Rahimi-Abkenar, Majid T. Manzari, Philippe M. Bardet
Nuclear Technology | Volume 195 | Number 1 | July 2016 | Pages 98-104
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-93
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effect of water on the dynamics response of fuel bundles in pressurized water reactors during external forcing is studied experimentally inside a large facility that houses a full-height bundle and is operated on an earthquake shake table. This configuration is directly relevant to earthquakes and loss-of-coolant accidents. Most data to date have been focused on structural response and some pointwise measurements of liquid velocity. Here, structure displacement coupled with velocity field are investigated with nonintrusive optical diagnostics in initially stagnant water. Data indicate that a flow develops as the structure oscillates: both a cross flow through the bundle and an axial pulsatile flow that was not anticipated. A physical mechanism is proposed as a source of this structure-induced flow that is driven by pressure gradients around the fuel bundle.