ML20042F997
| ML20042F997 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 02/28/1990 |
| From: | NRC |
| To: | Lloyd M HOUSE OF REP., SCIENCE, SPACE & TECHNOLOGY (FORMERLY |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20042F991 | List: |
| References | |
| CCS, LLOYD-900228, NUDOCS 9005100277 | |
| Download: ML20042F997 (1) | |
Text
r s
QUESTION 4.
To what degree is the NRC taking advantage of the NPR-MHTGR in your review of the civilian MHTGR's? Con the NRC fully utilize the NPR-MHTGR project for the demonstration purpose in the certification process?
.j l
ANSWER.
'l f
I At a point when the design and research needs of the NPR-MHTGR become defined, the NRC plans to develop an. agreement with DOE that would provide for a-satisfactory transfer of relevant information from the'NPR-MHTGR to the civilian MHTGR consistent with NRC's practices and procedures (e.g., avail-I' k
ability of licensing-related information'to the public).
Based on our current, knowledge, there are significant differences between the two designs that make it questionable whether the NPR-MHTGR can serve as a demonstration-prototype for.the civilian version. Among the major. differences are the NPR's fuel design which consists of highly enriched fuel, target materials in the core (thereby changing reactor physics parameters), and a different containment philosophy and design. The civilian MHTGR design expects development of a very high integrity fuel that would serve the. containment function, while the NPR design chooses not to depend on this development program but provides a more traditional containment. Because of the containment design for the NPR, water, rather than air cooling, is used to passively remove decay heat, another difficulty in the NPR serving as a prototype.
9005100277 900404 PDR ORO NOPZ PDC
.