Work

Safety assessment for internal and external events on nuclear power plants and on mitigation strategies

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper describes the main objectives and outcomes of two funded European projects (R2CA & BESEP), which have been recently finalized. They were dedicated to the safety analyses of design basis accidents and design extension conditions scenarios, covering a broad spectrum of accidents and analysis methodologies. The R2CA project covering deterministic safety analyses set out to reduce some of the conservatisms and decoupling factors currently used for design basis accidents in safety studies or licensing calculations and to optimize emergency operating/accident management procedures. To this end, simulation tools and their coupling in calculation chains were enhanced to provide a better quantification of safety margins and a better evaluation of the radiological consequences of accident scenarios. The BESEP project aims to develop best practices for the verification of stringent safety requirements against external hazards. The aim is achieved using an efficient and integrated set of safety engineering practices and probabilistic safety assessment. The efficient and integrated set of safety engineering practices supports the safety margins determination and safety requirement verification helping the licensing process of nuclear power plant new builds and upgrades.

Source: EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies

DOI: 10.1051/epjn/2025016

Authors: Atte Helminen, Nathalie Girault

Institutions: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire

Language: English

Topic: Risk and Safety Analysis

Subfield: Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty

Field: Decision Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $565

Funder: European Commission