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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.
Georgeta Radulescu, Kaushik Banerjee, Robert A. Lefebvre, L. Paul Miller, John M. Scaglione
Nuclear Technology | Volume 199 | Number 3 | September 2017 | Pages 299-309
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1348800
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Used Nuclear Fuel-Storage, Transportation & Disposal Analysis Resource and Data System (UNF-ST&DARDS) methodology to perform automated containment analyses for potential transportation packages based on canister loading map information is described, and its capability is illustrated with example results. The allowable leakage rate is calculated with the procedures provided in ANSI N14.5-2014 and NUREG/CR-6487, which were adapted for containment analysis of a transportation package containing fuel assemblies with different nuclear characteristics (e.g., initial enrichment, burnup, and cooling time) and clad integrity (intact or damaged). UNF-ST&DARDS applies different source term calculation methodologies for low-burnup fuel (LBF) (i.e., <45 GWd/tonne U) assemblies and high-burnup fuel (HBF) (i.e., ≥45 GWd/tonne U) assemblies. The LBF radionuclide activities are based on actual fuel assembly burnup, initial enrichment, and cooling time. Bounding radionuclide activities based on a fuel pellet burnup value of 65 GWd/tonne U and actual fuel assembly cooling time are used for HBF assemblies. The fraction of failed fuel rods and the release fractions for the contributors to releasable source terms recommended in NUREG-1617 are used in the containment analysis regardless of fuel assembly burnup. However, UNF-ST&DARDS supports different parameter values for LBF and HBF assemblies. The containment analysis methodology for as-loaded transportation packages is presented in detail, and the UNF-ST&DARDS containment analysis capability is illustrated with results for simulated transportation packages containing spent nuclear fuel canisters in dry storage at selected sites.