World Nuclear News’ Post

🚨Milestone Alert! TerraPower has awarded all major manufacturing contracts for the first Natrium® plant reactor enclosure system (RES). These awards advance the development of the Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor - a significant milestone in the deployment of America’s first advanced reactor. #NuclearEnergy #Natrium Read the release here: https://lnkd.in/djXWVR4v

Amentum has been selected by the Netherlands to review and advise on the technical feasibility studies for two new reactors in the country submitted from three potential reactor vendors. https://lnkd.in/dfmUsWZv

Holtec Britain signs expanded cooperation agreement with Sheffield Forgemasters, to support the manufacture of component parts for Holtec’s SMR-300 Small Modular Reactor (SMR)! https://lnkd.in/dn6SXnVS

MIT features PhD student Youyeon Choi who is working to make #SMRs more cost competitive by using Lightbridge Fuel to enable large power uprates #NuclearFuel MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering https://lnkd.in/eDjqG_Xd

Fast burst reactors were the first fast-spectrum research reactors to reach criticality by using only prompt neutrons with high-enriched uranium as fuel, creating a pulse for microseconds. Among many achievements, fast burst reactors were the first research reactors to demonstrate the ability of thermal expansion to terminate a pulse and to show how this could aid in reactor safety. In addition, fast burst reactors were pivotal in early fission studies including critical mass determination, criticality safety, the study of prompt and delayed neutrons, and much more. #fastreactor #researchreactor #fastspectrum #promptneutrons #delayedneutrons #burst

Many of the failures that occur in nuclear fuel rods in light water reactors (LWRs) around the world are caused by the phenomenon of mechanical interaction between pellets and cladding (PCMI). Whether due to cladding crack induction or stress corrosion cracking (SCC), this mechanism continues to be of interest to fuel rod manufacturers, fuel engineers, analysts and fuel performance code developers. Given the multiple mechanisms involved in PCMI, the process is extremely complex to simulate; therefore the models involved must be continuously improved and subjected to validation with experiments and comparison to other similar codes. PCMI is also a consideration for the design and licensing of accident-tolerant fuels (ATF). #nuclearfuel #PCMI #pellet #clad #interaction #modeling #simulation #powerramp

Here comes an interesting video from IAEA, introducing the SMR technology and comparing it to the existing fleet of nuclear reactors.

This is a major milestone for advanced reactors: https://lnkd.in/eQTJdxwM. NRC has published RG 1.253 providing guidance on how to submit a safety analysis report for advanced reactors. Building off of RG 1.233 there is now NRC-endorsed guidance identifying the events required for analysis, classifying structures, systems and components, selecting special treatments, and packaging that information into a safety analysis report. Still more work to do, but we are one step closer to being able to license advanced reactors in the US.

We are standing on the shoulders of giants, particularly Alvin Weinberg, who ran the molten salt reactor experiment in the 1960s. While many may think creating a #moltensalt system that pumps 700 degrees hot salt continuously around for 6000 hours seems simple, it actually isn’t. At Copenhagen Atomics, we are immensely proud to have built several reliable systems for molten salt testing, including full-scale reactor #prototypes. Before we can test a full scale #reactor with criticality, it is imperative that we have built and tested all components enough times that we can show it can run reliably with the same result every time. Therefore, having a test loop running cumulatively for three-quarters of a year is a great start for us. The next major milestones will be the 1MW test reactor in 2026 and the first-of-a-kind commercial reactor in 2028.

There are many steps on the road towards building a molten salt reactor. Today we took another one, with one of our molten salt test loops reaching 6,000 hours of pumping salt at 700 degrees C.