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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.
Holly R. Trellue, Robert C. Little, Morgan C. White, Robert E. MacFarlane, A. C. Kahler
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 832-836
MC Calculations | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (PART 3) / Radiation Measurements and Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-2
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Following the release of ENDF/B-VII.0 evaluations, an ACE-formatted continuous-energy neutron data library called ENDF70 for MCNP has been produced at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This new library contains data for 387 isotopes and three elements at five temperatures: 293.6, 600, 900, 1200, and 2500 K. It can be obtained as part of the MCNP5 1.50 release. The new library was created using ENDF/B-VII.0 neutron evaluations and primarily version 248 of NJOY99. A processing script was created that set up the input files for NJOY and employed checking codes to test the content of the processed data. A sample MCNP run was performed for each isotope and temperature, and cross sections for each isotope were plotted to make sure there were no major problems. The processed ACE libraries did not always pass all quality assurance tests. For example, energy-balance problems were identified for several evaluations having negative heating numbers or inconsistencies between total and partial heating. Similarly, some problems were found with unresolved resonance probability tables, resulting in probability tables being excluded from the final library for several materials. Certain evaluations were modified and reprocessed as a result of the quality assurance tests, and some data points in the final ACE files were changed because they were too small or had other problems. The new ENDF70 library provides MCNP users with the latest ENDF/B data available. This collection of data includes a larger range of isotopes and temperatures than previously released, which will be beneficial in numerous applications. The upgrades included as part of ENDF/B-VII.0 and, hence, ENDF70 should improve calculations.