The European Research on Severe Accidents in Generation-II and -III Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

Forty-three organisations from 22 countries network their capacities of research in SARNET (Severe Accident Research NETwork of excellence) to resolve the most important remaining uncertainties and safety issues on severe accidents in existing and future water-cooled nuclear power plants (NPP). After a first project in the 6th Framework Programme (FP6) of the European Commission, the SARNET2 project, coordinated by IRSN, started in April 2009 for 4 years in the FP7 frame. After 2,5 years, some main outcomes of joint research (modelling and experiments) by the network members on the highest priority issues are presented: in-vessel degraded core coolability, molten-corium-concrete-interaction, containment phenomena (water spray, hydrogen combustion…), source term issues (mainly iodine behaviour). The ASTEC integral computer code, jointly developed by IRSN and GRS to predict the NPP SA behaviour, capitalizes in terms of models the knowledge produced in the network: a few validation results are presented. For dissemination of knowledge, an educational 1-week course was organized for young researchers or students in January 2011, and a two-day course is planned mid-2012 for senior staff. Mobility of young researchers or students between the European partners is being promoted. The ERMSAR conference is becoming the major worldwide conference on SA research.

Review on Core Degradation and Material Migration Research in Light-Water Reactors

“…It has been applied to serial analyses of experiments, severe accident sequences, and evaluation of designs. The code ASTEC is a joint research product of GRS (Germany) and IRSN (France) to simulate severe accidents (Van Dorsselaere et al, 2009;Coindreau et al, 2010;Dorsselaere et al, 2012;Chatelard et al, 2014). It is a relatively new and integrated code designed to predict all the behaviors during severe accidents in LWRs, such as any event in the beginning and any event with possible radiation related to a certain fission product.…”

Spreading of Excellence in SARNET Network on Severe Accidents: The Education and Training Programme

“…The dissemination of internal and public information is also done through periodic open newsletters, two websites (the public one and the restricted one) and the participation of the members to public events. After the midterm of the project, the paper in [5] presents a more detailed SARNET2 description and a few recent outcomes of joint research done by the network members. Both organisations also assure the code maintenance and the support to the code users, notably through annual ASTEC Users' Club meetings.…”

Efforts to Progress in the Harmonization of L2 Psa Development and Their Applications in Europe - Status of Activities and Perspectives After the Fukushima Accident

“…In the European context, the Severe Accident Research NETwork of Excellence (SARNET [1,2]) gathers a large part of activities concerning severe accident issues. SARNET was initiated in 2004 with 51 organisations involved in severe accident research in Europe plus Switzerland and Canada.…”