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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.
Young Su Na, Song-Won Cho, Kwang Soon Ha
Nuclear Technology | Volume 195 | Number 3 | September 2016 | Pages 329-334
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-160
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This study evaluated the hydrogen issue in the initial operation of a filtered containment venting system (FCVS). We calculated the volumetric concentration of hydrogen, steam, and air in the postulated FCVS connected with the OPR 1000, as a target nuclear power plant, under a station blackout using the MELCOR computer code (version 1.8.6). A large amount of steam and a flammable mixture generated during a severe accident are immediately released from the containment building to the FCVS when the pressure in the containment building approaches a set value. The constituent ratio of the flammable mixture of hydrogen, steam, and air can change due to the different thermal-hydraulic conditions between those due to a severe accident in the containment building and the initial condition in the FCVS. The volumetric concentration of hydrogen was 6% in the containment building just before the operation of the FCVS. It increased up to 9% in the FCVS vessel during the early operation, and steam condensation occurred simultaneously. The atmospheric condition including steam, hydrogen, and air in the FCVS can enter the combustion zone in the Shapiro diagram.