Safety Aspects of Long Term Operation of Nuclear Power Plants

In the last years many Member States started a programme to assess the possibility for a Long Term Operation of their older nuclear power plants. These programs follow different approaches, being intrinsically dependent on the national regulatory framework and technical tradition. Typical safety assessment processes such as the Periodic Safety Review can be used as a framework for the preparation of long-term operation. Also the Licence Renewal based on the review of ageing management programs in context with other regulatory tools as the regular updating of the Safety Analysis Report could be used to ensure a safe long-term operation. The analysis of the practice in countries operating NPPs suggested that despite the differences related to the regulatory process, the main components of the programs and their basic technical tasks are shared among most of the countries. This paper aims at identifying the technical aspects more directly affecting the decision for a long-term safe operation of a nuclear facility, independently from their licensing framework. The paper includes an analysis of the safety implications of a program for preparation of long- term operation of NPPs, with reference to the available IAEA documents and experience in the review of national programs. The program running at Paks NPP Hungary represents one of the most recent experiences in the field. It is presented in the paper as an example of application of general safety principles to a real case, with proposals of solutions for practical problems common to many similar plants

Editiones externae. - Antje Bosselmann-Ruickbie Byzantinischer Schmuck des 9. bis 13. Jahrhunderts. Untersuchungen zum metallenen dekorativen Körperschmuck der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit anhand datierter Funde.

A. Bosselmann-Ruickbie: Byzantinischer Schmuck des 9. bis 13. Jahrhunderts. Untersuchungen zum metallenen dekorativen Körperschmuck der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit anhand datierter Funde. Spätantike – Frühes Christentum – Byzanz. Reihe B: Studien und Perspektiven 28. Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden 2011. 420 Seiten, 493 schwarz-weiße Abbildungen, 222 Farbtafeln. S. Felgenhauer-Schmiedt–M. Hofer–K. Kühtreiber–G. ScharrerLiška (Hrsg.): Keramik und Technik. 43. Internationales Symposium Keramikforschung des Arbeitskreises für Keramikforschung. Beiträge zur Mittelalterarchäologie 27. ÖGM, Wien 2011. 338 Seiten

Cardiovascular System Studies

Contains research objectives and reports on one research project.National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 TI HE 5550-03

Differentiation of dementia with Lewy bodies from Alzheimer's disease using a dopaminergic presynaptic ligand

Background: Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is one of the main differential diagnoses of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Key pathological features of patients with DLB are not only the presence of cerebral cortical neuronal loss, with Lewy bodies in surviving neurones, but also loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurones, similar to that of Parkinson's disease (PD). In DLB there is 40-70% loss of striatal dopamine.Objective: To determine if detection of this dopaminergic degeneration can help to distinguish DLB from AD during life.Methods: The integrity of the nigrostriatal metabolism in 27 patients with DLB, 17 with AD, 19 drug naive patients with PD, and 16 controls was assessed using a dopaminergic presynaptic ligand, I-123-labelled 2beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-(4-iodophenyl)-N-(3-fluoropropyl)nortropane (FP-CIT), and single photon emission tomography (SPET). A SPET scan was carried out with a single slice, brain dedicated tomograph (SME 810) 3.5 hours after intravenous injection of 185 MBq FP-CIT. With occipital cortex used as a radioactivity uptake reference, ratios for the caudate nucleus and the anterior and posterior putamen of both hemispheres were calculated. All scans were also rated by a simple visual method.Results: Both DLB and PD patients had significantly lower uptake of radioactivity than patients with (p<0.01) and controls (p<0.001) in the caudate nucleus and the anterior and posterior Putamen.Conclusion: FP-CIT SPET provides a means of distinguishing DLB from AD during life