TERRAPOWER, LLC TRAVELING WAVE REACTOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Hejzlar, Pavel,Petroski, Robert,Cheatham, Jesse,Touran, Nick,Cohen, Michael,Truong, Bao,Latta, Ryan,Werner, Mark,Burke, Tom,Tandy, Jay,Garrett, Mike,Johnson, Brian,Ellis, Tyler,Mcwhirter, Jon,Odedra, Korean Nuclear Society 2013 Nuclear Engineering and Technology Vol.45 No.6

Energy security is a topic of high importance to many countries throughout the world. Countries with access to vast energy supplies enjoy all of the economic and political benefits that come with controlling a highly sought after commodity. Given the desire to diversify away from fossil fuels due to rising environmental and economic concerns, there are limited technology options available for baseload electricity generation. Further complicating this issue is the desire for energy sources to be sustainable and globally scalable in addition to being economic and environmentally benign. Nuclear energy in its current form meets many but not all of these attributes. In order to address these limitations, TerraPower, LLC has developed the Traveling Wave Reactor (TWR) which is a near-term deployable and truly sustainable energy solution that is globally scalable for the indefinite future. The fast neutron spectrum allows up to a ~30-fold gain in fuel utilization efficiency when compared to conventional light water reactors utilizing enriched fuel. When compared to other fast reactors, TWRs represent the lowest cost alternative to enjoy the energy security benefits of an advanced nuclear fuel cycle without the associated proliferation concerns of chemical reprocessing. On a country level, this represents a significant savings in the energy generation infrastructure for several reasons 1) no reprocessing plants need to be built, 2) a reduced number of enrichment plants need to be built, 3) reduced waste production results in a lower repository capacity requirement and reduced waste transportation costs and 4) less uranium ore needs to be mined or purchased since natural or depleted uranium can be used directly as fuel. With advanced technological development and added cost, TWRs are also capable of reusing both their own used fuel and used fuel from LWRs, thereby eliminating the need for enrichment in the longer term and reducing the overall societal waste burden. This paper describes the origins and current status of the TWR development program at TerraPower, LLC. Some of the areas covered include the key TWR design challenges and brief descriptions of TWR-Prototype (TWR-P) reactor. Selected information on the TWR-P core designs are also provided in the areas of neutronic, thermal hydraulic and fuel performance. The TWR-P plant design is also described in such areas as; system design descriptions, mechanical design, and safety performance.

The effect of the modification methods on the catalytic performance of activated carbon supported CuO-ZnO catalysts

Huamei Duan,Yunxia Yang3,Jim Patel,Nick Burke,Yuchun Zhai,Paul A. Webley,Dengfu Chen,Mujun Long 한국탄소학회 2018 Carbon Letters Vol.25 No.-

Activated carbon (AC) was modified by ammonium persulphate or nitric acid, respectively. AC and the modified materials were used as catalyst supports. The oxygen groups were introduced in the supports during the modifications. All the supports were characterized by N2-physisorption, Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermogravimetric analysis. Methanol synthesis catalysts were prepared through wet impregnation of copper nitrate and zinc nitrate on the supports followed by thermal decomposition. These catalysts were measured by the means of N2-physisorption, X-ray diffraction, XPS, temperature programmed reduction and TEM tests. The catalytic performances of the prepared catalysts were compared with a commercial catalyst (CZA) in this work. The results showed that the methanol production rate of AC-CZ (23 mmol-CH3OH/(g-Cu·h)) was higher, on Cu loading basis, than that of CZA (9 mmol-CH3OH/(g-Cu·h)). We also found that the modification methods produced strong metal-support interactions leading to poor catalytic performance. AC without any modification can prompt the catalytic performance of the resulted catalyst.

TerraPower, LLC Traveling Wave Reactor Development Program Overview

PAVEL HEJZLAR,Rovert Petroski,Jesse Cheatham,Nick Touran,Michael Cohen,Bao Truong,Ryan Latta,Mark Werner,Tom Burke,Jay Tandy,Mike Gattett,Brian Johnson,Tyler Ellis,Jon Mcwhirter,Ash Odedra,Pat Schweig 한국원자력학회 2013 Nuclear Engineering and Technology Vol.45 No.6

Energy security is a topic of high importance to many countries throughout the world. Countries with access to vast energy supplies enjoy all of the economic and political benefits that come with controlling a highly sought after commodity. Given the desire to diversify away from fossil fuels due to rising environmental and economic concerns, there are limited technology options available for baseload electricity generation. Further complicating this issue is the desire for energy sources to be sustainable and globally scalable in addition to being economic and environmentally benign. Nuclear energy in its current form meets many but not all of these attributes. In order to address these limitations, TerraPower, LLC has developed the Traveling Wave Reactor (TWR) which is a near-term deployable and truly sustainable energy solution that is globally scalable for the indefinite future. The fast neutron spectrum allows up to a ~30-fold gain in fuel utilization efficiency when compared to conventional light water reactors utilizing enriched fuel. When compared to other fast reactors, TWRs represent the lowest cost alternative to enjoy the energy security benefits of an advanced nuclear fuel cycle without the associated proliferation concerns of chemical reprocessing. On a country level, this represents a significant savings in the energy generation infrastructure for several reasons 1) no reprocessing plants need to be built, 2) a reduced number of enrichment plants need to be built, 3) reduced waste production results in a lower repository capacity requirement and reduced waste transportation costs and 4) less uranium ore needs to be mined or purchased since natural or depleted uranium can be used directly as fuel. With advanced technological development and added cost, TWRs are also capable of reusing both their own used fuel and used fuel from LWRs, thereby eliminating the need for enrichment in the longer term and reducing the overall societal waste burden. This paper describes the origins and current status of the TWR development program at TerraPower, LLC. Some of the areas covered include the key TWR design challenges and brief descriptions of TWR-Prototype (TWR-P) reactor. Selected information on the TWR-P core designs are also provided in the areas of neutronic, thermal hydraulic and fuel performance. The TWR-P plant design is also described in such areas as; system design descriptions, mechanical design, and safety performance. Energy security is a topic of high importance to many countries throughout the world. Countries with access to vast energysupplies enjoy all of the economic and political benefits that come with controlling a highly sought after commodity. Given thedesire to diversify away from fossil fuels due to rising environmental and economic concerns, there are limited technologyoptions available for baseload electricity generation. Further complicating this issue is the desire for energy sources to besustainable and globally scalable in addition to being economic and environmentally benign. Nuclear energy in its currentform meets many but not all of these attributes. In order to address these limitations, TerraPower, LLC has developed theTraveling Wave Reactor (TWR) which is a near-term deployable and truly sustainable energy solution that is globally scalablefor the indefinite future. The fast neutron spectrum allows up to a ~30-fold gain in fuel utilization efficiency when compared toconventional light water reactors utilizing enriched fuel. When compared to other fast reactors, TWRs represent the lowestcost alternative to enjoy the energy security benefits of an advanced nuclear fuel cycle without the associated proliferationconcerns of chemical reprocessing. On a country level, this represents a significant savings in the energy generationinfrastructure for several reasons 1) no reprocessing plants need to be built, 2) a reduced number of enrichment plants need tobe built, 3) reduced waste production results in a lower repository capacity requirement and reduced waste transportation costsand 4) less uranium ore needs to be mined or purchased since natural or depleted uranium can be used directly as fuel. Withadvanced technological development and added cost, TWRs are also capable of reusing both their own used fuel and used fuelfrom LWRs, thereby eliminating the need for enrichment in the longer term and reducing the overall societal waste burden. This paper describes the origins and current status of the TWR development program at TerraPower, LLC. Some of the areascovered include the key TWR design challenges and brief descriptions of TWR-Prototype (TWR-P) reactor. Selectedinformation on the TWR-P core designs are also provided in the areas of neutronic, thermal hydraulic and fuel performance. The TWR-P plant design is also described in such areas as; system design descriptions, mechanical design, and safetyperformance.