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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.
K. V. Vrinda Devi, T. Soreng, J. P. Panakkal, H. S. Kamath
Nuclear Technology | Volume 164 | Number 2 | November 2008 | Pages 305-308
Technical Note | Radiation Measurements and Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A4028
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Passive gamma scanning (PGS) for detecting the variations in relative PuO2 content (composition) in (U,Pu) mixed oxide (MOX) fuel pins with low PuO2 content (0.4%) for pressurized heavy water reactors is demonstrated. Experiments are carried out with MOX pins of varying compositions with a NaI(Tl) detector. An annular detector was used to improve the counting statistics, and it was demonstrated that a change of PuO2 content of ±0.02% could be detected at a very low level of PuO2 content of 0.4%. It was also observed that a larger-sized PuO2 agglomerate of 1 mm located near the surface of the pellets could be detected during PGS of the welded fuel pins.
