Facilities

Test facility was designed in such a way that it enables to conduct experiments at any inclination of the flow channel. Test facility will be also used for demonstrational and educational purposes.

SOURCE TERM is an international research programme carried out by IRSN and CEA (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique) with the support of Electricité de France, the European Commission, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US), GDF/ SUEZ/ Tractebel (Belgium), Atomic Energy Canada Limited (Canada),

The test section of the KROTOS facility consists of a stainless steel test section bolted to lugs welded on the inner side walls of a stainless steel pressure vessel.

The LIVE facility at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe is designed to study the late phase of core degradation, onset of melting and the formation and stability of melt pools in the RPV.

The influence of containment sprays on atmosphere behaviour is being investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Experiments are being performed on the TOSQAN and MISTRA experimental facilities.

PACTEL is a volumetrically scaled (1: 305) facility including a pressurizer, high and low pressure emergency core cooling systems, and accumulators. The reactor vessel is simulated with a U-tube construction including separate downcomer and core sections.

In case of a hypothetical severe accident in a nuclear LWR (light water reactor), the high radiation fields reached in the reactor containment building due to the release of fission products from the reactor core could induce air radiolysis.

In case of prolonged loss of cooling accident, the fuel rods of the core of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) will be damaged, and will collapse to form what is called a "debris bed", i.e.

Since the core meltdown accident in the Three Mile Island reactor in 1979, a series of experimental safety research programmes has been conducted by a number of international research organisations, including the IRSN, which manages the European SARNET network.