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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.
Masaharu Kinno, Ken-Ichi Kimura, Hirokazu Nishida, Yusuke Fujikura, Norichika Katayose, Takao Tanosaki, Koki Ichitsubo, Masaki Takimoto, Hiroichi Tomotake, Ryoetsu Yoshino, Taiichiro Mori, Katsumi Hayashi, Mikio Uematsu, Tomohiro Ogata, Mikihiro Nakata, Mitsuru Sato, Minoru Saito, Mamabu Sato, Akira Hasegawa
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 2 | November 2009 | Pages 564-570
Shielding Materials | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (Part 2) / Radiation Measurements and Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9244
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Screening tests using several reactors were performed to select low-activation raw materials. The number of samples was about 1500. Detailed data were obtained on the concentrations of Co and Eu in low-activation aggregates, low-activation cements, low-activation additives, and low-activation B4C sands. After that, we manufactured various types (1/10, 1/20, 1/30, 1/50, 1/100, 1/300) of low-activation concrete. The term "1/10 low-activation" concrete denotes that the activity reduction rate to ordinary concrete is designed to be 1/10. By admixing with a boron content of [approximately]1 × 1021/cm3, the total residual radioactivity reduction rates of low-activation concrete to ordinary concrete, in units of Di/Ci (Di: concentration of radionuclide i, Ci: clearance level of radionuclide i cited from IAEA-RS-G-1.7), are estimated to range from [approximately]1/300 to 1/10 000. It was concluded that most of the shielding concrete around the advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) or the advanced pressurized water reactor (APWR) are classified below the clearance level of decommissioning by adopting some suitable types of low-activation concrete.