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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.
Yoshiko Harima, Yukio Sakamoto, Naohiro Kurosawa, Akinao Shimizu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 861-866
Shielding | 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 Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9319
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The geometric-progression (G-P) formula can accurately reproduce buildup factor data up to depths of 40 mean free paths (mfp) within a few percent. This formula was improved to apply to depths up to 100 mfp, using the buildup factor data of Shimizu et al. (2004) calculated with the Invariant Embedding method.The behavior of the K parameter as a function of distance was examined, and a new formula was introduced from the depth of Xm ([approximately]40 mfp). The fitting parameters were determined using a minimizing procedure of the maximum fractional deviation (MMD). Within some sets of parameters determined by the MMD fit, one set of parameters was selected that realized the interpolation of the buildup factor with regard to energy, using interpolated G-P parameters. Consequently, discrete buildup factor data were converted to continuous data with regard to both energy and distance.