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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.
Yoshitaka Chikazawa, Atsushi Katoh, Tomohiko Yamamoto, Shigenobu Kubo, Shuji Ohno, Mikinori Iwasaki, Hiroyuki Hara, Yoshio Shimakawa, Hiroshi Sakaba
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 1 | October 2016 | Pages 61-73
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-131
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR) adopts a double boundary for all sodium components. In this paper, design measures are investigated against a secondary sodium fire inside the reactor building, which might be assumed as design extension conditions. Candidate sodium fire measures for the secondary sodium systems compared in terms of safety are the sodium drain, nitrogen injection, pressure release valve, catch pan, and drain system for leaked sodium. Various sodium fires in the steam generator room have been analyzed by the SPHINCS code to evaluate the performance of the candidate sodium fire measures.