Development of full-scale simulators for nuclear power plants

The structure of full-scale simulators of nuclear power plants and their development are described. The special features of analytical simulators, which are economical tools for training nuclear power plant personnel because they require only a small investment of capital, are described. An industrial technology for developing simulators for nuclear power plants has been adopted and is maintained at a modern level at the All-Russia Scientific-Research Institute of Nuclear Power Plants. A change in the technical policy of the concern Rosénergoatom made it possible to solve, by and large, the problem of equipping nuclear power plants in Russia with simulators. 3 figures, 1 table, 4 references. All-Russia Scientific-Research Institute of Nuclear Power Plants. Translated from Atomnaya énergiya, Vol. 88, No. 6. pp. 407–414, June, 2000.     

Russia's Strategy in Reactor Safety Investigations

The views of the author on the content of programs for future scientific research on the safety of domestic reactors are presented. The classification of the scientific-research work is based on the principle of deep stacking of protection. The fields of interest to those who order the scientific-research work are examined: the Ministry of Atomic Energy, Rosénergoatom, State Atomic Inspectorate, and international organizations. It is suggested that the center of gravity of Russian research on the safety of nuclear power plants be transferred from analysis of accidents to the study of measures for preventing them. Special importance is attached to investigations on increasing the level of the safety culture of the personnel, specifically, studying the effect of the human factor on safety. It is suggested that the efforts of specialists in various fields of science be concentrated in this direction.     

Challenges left in the area of in-vessel melt retention

The in-vessel melt retention becomes an important safety objective for the present or future middle power nuclear plants, so care has to be taken in the evaluation of the various phenomena related to ensuring the feasibility of this objective. Since the prediction of the relevant phenomena has to be performed for the prototypical accident conditions, the applicability of the measured data or of the correlations derived from these measurements have to be established and the uncertainties determined. In this context, most uncertainties are introduced by the non-prototypicalities in the experiments. The paper describes the major findings from the OECD RASPLAV project and discusses the remaining challenges left in the area of in-vessel molten corium coolability.     

Corium spreading and coolability: CSC Project

In the context of severe accidents, large R&D efforts throughout the world are currently directed towards ex-vessel corium behaviour. Among the mitigation means which can be envisaged, the European industries and utilities are considering the implementation of a core-catcher outside the reactor pressure vessel in order to prevent basemat erosion and to stabilize and control the corium within the containment. The CSC project focused on two key phenomena for external core-catcher efficiency, reliability and safety: spreading and coolability. An experimental programme, covering different scenarios and including both simulant and real materials provided a lot of results which now constitute a large database and which enabled the qualification of computer codes.     

Silicon Wafer Bonding by Chemical Assembly of a Surface by Molecular Layering and Gas Cutting

It is suggested that chemical and heat treatment of surfaces under moist conditions (including also chemical assembly of a surface by molecular layering) and gas-cutting be used to fabricate silicon on insulator structures to obtain silicon wafer surfaces with prescribed chemical composition, activation, and surface modification.