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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
Ryoichi Kurihara, Shuzo Ueda, Eisuke Tada
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1465-1469
Safety and Environment | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963155
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A vacuum vessel wall with a postulated crack is modeled by using the two-dimensional solid finite elements. The J-integral value, a criterion of fracture mechanics, is calculated to estimate the integrity of the vacuum vessel wall with a postulated crack.
The analytical results show that the J-integral value of a crack having a quarter depth of the wall width is considerably less than the fracture toughness JIC when the membrane stress is less than the 0.2% proof stress of the unirradiated material, even if the vacuum vessel is irradiated to 3 dpa. This means that a shallow crack in the vacuum vessel wall does not become critical in the design load.
