Privacy Notice
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Security and Privacy Notice |
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Historically, the United States and the Russian Federation both have had significant research programs on many of the topics that are vital to the safety of nuclear reactors. Unique capabilities and strengths have been developed in each country over the years. The leaders of the two countries have recognized that we can build on this combination of strengths by engaging in collaborative research. This approach will apply the best talents to the problems that must be addressed and it will maximize the benefits that can be derived from the available resources.
To facilitate this, International Nuclear Safety Centers have a mission to develop and coordinate collaborative nuclear safety research programs. Currently, the Centers are managing nine joint research projects on topics that have significant impact on the safety of Russian-designed nuclear power plants. Some aspects of these projects are being conducted in Russian laboratories and some aspects are being conducted in United States laboratories. Five of the projects were initiated in January 1997; the other four projects were initiated in the middle of 1997.A database on nuclear facilities and nuclear safety technology in Russia will be developed at the RINSC and made accessible over the WorldWideWeb. Automated links to and from a similar Nuclear Safety Database at the USINSC will be implemented to promote technical exchange and mutual safety benefits. It is expected that the database will have information that is in sufficient for the performance of safety analyses; consequently, it will be necessary to put detailed physical property information into the database.
A database of thermodynamic, transport and mechanical properties of reactor materials under normal, transient and severe accident conditions for thermal hydraulic, structural and seismic analyses will be developed and critically reviewed. The efforts will focus on the properties data available in Russia that has not been made available until now. In some cases, critically needed properties measurements will be made. This task will be coordinated with the IAEA Coordinated Research Program to establish an internationally available, peer reviewed database of thermophysical properties for LWR and HWR materials at normal, transient and severe accident conditions.
The aim of this task is to prepare a compilation of projects, facilities, experiments and computer codes pertinent to safety research and development for Soviet-designed light water reactors The projects, facilities experiments and computer codes are to include those from all countries that have Soviet-designed reactors, including the Russian Federation, other former Soviet countries and Eastern Europe. Both in-reactor and out-of-reactor facilities are to be included. It will include completed projects and facilities that may have been dismantled, work in progress and projects and facilities that are planned.
The tasks that are currently underway under this project are a comprehensive review of methods and computer software development activities being carried out in the Russian Federation for dynamic analyses of multi-dimensional, coupled neutronic/thermal hydraulic phenomena in nuclear power plants and a review of algorithms for parallelization of the dynamic computation tasks. Subsequent tasks will include the development and documentation of benchmark problems and their solutions. This collaboration is expected to advance international efforts on the development of coupled codes for assessment of key safety issues ion design and operation of reactors worldwide.
Accident management is the technology base that is used to assure that any reactor accident that progresses beyond the plant design basis can be terminated as early as possible with as little consequence as possible. The first task that is being carried out is to document the status of accident management technology in the US and in the RF.
The computer codes addressed in this project are codes used in transient and accident analysis typically performed in design basis accident analysis and in-depth safety assessments, such as neutron kinetics and thermal hydraulic analysis codes, but not codes used for the analysis of beyond design basis accidents involving core melt phenomena and beyond. The main objective of this computer code validation is to increase the confidence in the results obtained by the use of computer codes in operational and safety analyses of VVER and RBMK reactors. The use of validated codes will improve the credibility of plant specific safety analyses. It is anticipated that results and documentation of the code validation project will be used in support of code certification by Gosatomnadzor (GAN), the Russian regulatory agency. Consequently, the code validation project must address GAN requirements. The computer code validation efforts will be coordinated with code assessment activities in the Plant Safety Evaluation Task and with the code certification support efforts of the Nuclear Safety Legislative and Regulator Framework Task of the INSP. Similarly, these activities will be coordinated with efforts of international organization, in particular with the VVER Thermohydraulics Code Validation Matrix work organized under the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency.
Three-dimensional structural analysis software and models that are used for the evaluation on nuclear power plant structures such as containments, steam generators, steam separators, drum separators, etc. will be validated under design and beyond design basis loadings. Loadings that will be considered include seismic, thermal, aircraft crash, external and internal shock waves and hydrodynamic loadings. The software will treat the nonlinear static and transient behavior of metals, reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete and liquids. The software will be sufficiently generic so that it can be used for Soviet-designed reactors in the Russian Federation, other former Soviet countries and Eastern Europe as well as for US reactor designs.
The overall objective of the project is to develop generic expert advisor computer codes and generic advanced plant control algorithms for real-time operator assistance during plant transient conditions.
The Nuclear Energy Agency, which is an agenncy of the European Community (OECD), recently issued a report entitled "Safety Research Needs for Russian-designed Reactors", (NEA/CSNI/R(96)12). The report recommends that a Safety Research Strategic Plan be developed and that international cooperation and safety research be encouraged for purposes of improving quality, preventing technical isolation and promoting cost sharing of research among countries. The USINSC and the RINSC will work together to develop a plan for research on the safety of Russian-designed nuclear reactors.