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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.
Jason Kirschenbaum, Paolo Bucci, Michael Stovsky, Diego Mandelli, Tunc Aldemir, Michael Yau, Sergio Guarro, Eylem Ekici, Steven A. Arndt
Nuclear Technology | Volume 165 | Number 1 | January 2009 | Pages 53-95
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A4062
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
There is an accelerating trend to upgrade and replace nuclear power plant analog instrumentation and control systems with digital systems. While various methodologies are available for the reliability modeling of these systems for plant probabilistic risk assessments, there is no benchmark system that can be used as the basis for methodology comparison. A system representative of the steam generator feedwater control systems in pressurized water reactors is proposed for such a comparison. Dynamic reliability modeling of the benchmark system for an example initiating event is illustrated using the Markov/cell-to-cell mapping technique and dynamic flowgraph methodologies.