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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.
V. Subramanian, R. Baskaran
Nuclear Technology | Volume 160 | Number 3 | December 2007 | Pages 308-313
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3901
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The behavior of sodium hydroxide aerosol is one of the important features in the safety evaluation of a sodium-cooled fast reactor. The vapor phase combustion of the sodium results in the generation of sodium oxide aerosols in the flame zone. The physical and chemical changes of sodium oxide aerosol after leaving the flame zone are very important to understand the sodium oxide aerosol process. The particle size distribution of sodium hydroxide aerosol after leaving the flame zone is measured using both optical and impaction techniques in the Aerosol Test Facility. The mass median diameter is found to be ~1.0 m for the particles older than 20 s. The size distribution is essentially attributed to sodium hydroxide aerosol. The initial size distribution of particles does not vary with ignition temperatures over the range of 250 to 550°C for a confined pool, whereas the size increases with increase in relative humidity.