RMPS Project: Reliability Methods for Passive Systems – FINAL REPORT

This report presents the study performed within the framework of a European Project called Reliability Methods for Passive Safety Functions (RMPS). Its objective is to propose a specific methodology to assess the passive system thermal-hydraulic (T-H) reliability. The methodology is tested on an example of industrial passive system: the Isolation Condenser System (ICS). The T-H calculations are performed using the RELAP5, ATHLET and CATHARE computer codes. In this paper, the present state of the methodology and its application to the example are described. Owing to the recent start of the project, only results concerning the first objective of the project (identification and quantification of the sources of uncertainties and determination of the important variables) are presented. A sensitivity analysis was carried out on 69 computation results performed with the RELAP5 code. The analysis highlights the importance of establishing a method for the evaluation of reliability of passive systems

Description of the European Helium-Cooled EFIT Plant: An Industrial-Scale Accelerator-Driven System for Minor Actinide Transmutation—II

International audienceIn order to reduce the volume and the radiotoxicityof the nuclear waste coming from the operation of existingpressurized water reactors, accelerator-driven systems(ADSs) have been envisioned.The Helium-cooled (He) European Facility forIndustrial-scale Transmutation (He-EFIT) concept is theEUROpean Research Programme for the TRANSmutationof High Level Nuclear Waste in Accelerator DrivenSystem (EUROTRANS) Integrated Project (IP) (EUROTRANSIP) backup option, whereas Pb-cooled EFITis the reference one. The plant has a power of ;400MW(thermal). Like all ADS plants, it consists of threemain components: the accelerator, the spallation targetmodule, and the subcritical core.This paper describes the He-EFIT design at the endof the EUROTRANS IP as well as the studies performedto support this design: spallation performances, trasmutationcapabilities, and plant safety analyses.No specific technology deadlock has been identified,and it might be possible to build such a plant given necessaryresearch and development in support

Radiation-hard semiconductor detectors for SuperLHC.

An option of increasing the luminosity of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN to 1035 cm−2 s−1 has been envisaged to extend the physics reach of the machine. An efficient tracking down to a few centimetres from the interaction point will be required to exploit the physics potential of the upgraded LHC. As a consequence, the semiconductor detectors close to the interaction region will receive severe doses of fast hadron irradiation and the inner tracker detectors will need to survive fast hadron fluences of up to above 1016 cm−2. The CERN-RD50 project “Development of Radiation Hard Semiconductor Devices for Very High Luminosity Colliders” has been established in 2002 to explore detector materials and technologies that will allow to operate devices up to, or beyond, this limit. The strategies followed by RD50 to enhance the radiation tolerance include the development of new or defect engineered detector materials (SiC, GaN, Czochralski and epitaxial silicon, oxygen enriched Float Zone silicon), the improvement of present detector designs and the understanding of the microscopic defects causing the degradation of the irradiated detectors. The latest advancements within the RD50 collaboration on radiation hard semiconductor detectors will be reviewed and discussed in this work