Collaborative network to strengthen knowledge in nuclear power plant safety
Nuclear energy can offer an unparalleled source of sustainable and clean energy (no greenhouse gas emissions). The EU wants to ensure that nuclear energy around the world operates under the strictest safety and security standards. The EU-funded SARNET2 (Severe accident research network of excellence 2) project consolidated a tool to predict the behaviour of nuclear power plants during major accidents. It gathered 47 organisations in 24 countries primarily from Europe, but also Canada, India, Korea and the United States. Building on its predecessor, the network of excellence successfully consolidated the sustainable integration of European SA research capacities, incorporating relevant key EU and non-EU actors. The network tackled existing fragmentation between various national research and development programmes by defining common research programmes and developing common safety assessment tools and methodologies. Work on corium, containment and source term phenomena significantly advanced six previously defined high-priority issues: corium/debris coolability; molten-core-concrete interaction; steam explosion; hydrogen combustion in containment; impact of oxidising conditions on source term; and iodine chemistry. Project partners conducted a series of experiments on debris bed reflooding, molten-core-concrete interactions and source term. These experiments, together with benchmark exercises, reports and physical models, continuously fed into new knowledge on SA phenomena and management. The SARNET2 team finalised a new version of the Accident Source Term Evaluation Code (ASTEC), which simulates hypothetical SAs in a nuclear water-cooled reactor. Researchers integrated most of the network's accumulated knowledge into ASTEC, which can be used for nuclear power plant safety assessment or improvement. Together with a newly developed experimental database, ASTEC can also be used for industrial applications. Other notable outcomes include three education and training courses for young scientists and staff managers, mobility and secondment schemes, a 750-page textbook contribution on SA phenomenology, and over 360 technical papers presented at conferences and in scientific journals. Thanks to SARNET2, nuclear power plants and authorities worldwide stand to benefit from a wealth of information on upgrading safety considerably.
Keywords
Nuclear power plant, safety, severe accidents, SARNET2, source term
