Ageing probabilistic safety assessment network - Recent developments

International audienceThis paper presents the recent results obtained in the frame of Joint Research Centre - Institute for Energy (JRC-IE) institutional project "Use of Probabilistic Safety Assessment for Evaluation of Ageing Effects". The project started in 2004, having as participants, organizations (utilities, regulatory authorities, research and technical support organizations) from EC MS, Swiss, RF, Armenia and Korea. The network intends to contribute to the understanding and assessment of ageing effects on the performances of the plants, and to promote the use of PSA for ageing management and for risk-informed decisions. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Ageing probabilistic safety assessment network - Achievement and perspectives

This paper presents the main achievements obtained in the frame of Joint Research Centre - Institute for Energy (JRC-IE) institutional project "Use of PSA for Evaluation of Ageing Effects" (APSA). The project started in 2004, with 14 organizations which were interested in the assessment of ageing effects. The project participants are highly qualified experts from EU Member State, Switzerland, Russian Federation, Armenia and Korea. The APSA project intends to contribute to the understanding of the impact that ageing phenomena could induce on the plant performances, to promote the use of PSA for ageing management and for riskinformed decisions, and to disseminate the lessons learned from impact of ageing phenomena in NPP

Metastable Al\u2013Si\u2013Ni alloys for additive manufacturing: Structural stability and energy release during heating

Rapid solidification with high cooling rates of metal alloys determines both the improvement of mechanical properties, due to the finishing of the structure, as well as obtaining metastable structures in the form of supersaturated or amorphous/nano solid solutions, which could potentially confer the material outstanding properties. It is of particular interest to use the energies released during the heating stage for these materials, due to the potentially lower input energy required to melt/fuse these materials. This phenomenon could add to the development and diversification of additive manufacturing technologies. The paper presents results concerning the structural development and phase transformation of metastable structures from Al\u2013Si\u2013Ni-based alloys, obtained by melt spinning and atomization techniques. It was observed that the structural transformations occurring during the heating process, starting from metastable structures, generate significant amounts of energy. This is of practical importance in the use of metallic powders in additive manufacturing technology, due to potentially reduced energy input