European passive plant program: A design for the 21st century

In 1994, a group of European utilities initiated, together with Westinghouse and its industrial partner GENESI (an Italian consortium including ANSALDO and FIAT), a program designated EPP (European Passive Plant) to evaluate Westinghouse passive nuclear plant technology for application in Europe. The following major tasks were accomplished: (1) the impacts of the European utility requirements (EUR) on the Westinghouse nuclear island design were evaluated; and (2) a 1000 MWe passive plant reference design (EP1000) was established which conforms to the EUR and is expected to be licensable in Europe. With respect to safety systems and containment, the reference plant design closely follows that of the Westinghouse simplified pressurized water reactor (SPWR) design, while the AP600 plant design has been taken as the basis for the EP1000 reference design in the auxiliary system design areas. However, the EP1000 design also includes features required to meet the EUR, as well as key European licensing requirements.     

Crystallization of polymer melts under fast cooling. II. High-purity iPP

Samples of a high-purity isotactic polypropylene (iPP) were quenched from the melt so as to monitor cooling history. A continuous variation of morphology and crystal structure was obtained with cooling rate. This is discussed in relation to sample thermal history evidencing that cooling history relevant to quenched samples is in the neighborhood of 90°C. In particular the samples are essentially mesomorphic when at this temperature cooling rates larger than 80°C/s were adopted, while below a few tens of °C/s only α-monocline form is obtained. Densities of quenched samples were compared with predictions of an isokinetic extrapolation of Avrami model of polymer crystallization kinetics.