In order to establish the Nuclear Safety Requirements Document (NSRD) for the post-operational phase (POP) of the Belgian NPPs, the licensee (Electrabel) applied an efficient Integrated Safety Approach (ISA) based on Bel V recommandations.

Light Water Reactors (LWRs) such as the ones operating in Switzerland work at relatively high temperatures and pressures. As a consequence, thermal-hydraulics experiments investigating relevant LWRs phenomena at prototypical conditions require test sections with relatively thick steel walls. This poses significant challenges for the implementation of suitable instrumentation to capture phenomena of interest, such as the flow regimes during transition from liquid to steam. The characterization of flow regimes in the presence of boiling is rather complex, and their better understanding would allow to develop mathematical modeling tools that can be used to optimize equipment and better assess safety margins. To perform in-situ measurements of the boiling process under high-pressure conditions, the team of authors from PSI, ETH, and the University of Michigan has developed a new high-fidelity and high-speed imaging system based on x-ray radiography, which provides high-resolution details on the boiling process while being non-intrusive. Since the instrumentation is located outside of the test section, it has also the advantage that can be easily moved to take measurements in different region of the test sections.

During the internship the phenomena of High Burnup Structure (HBS) formation was investigated. Working with locally developed mechanistic fission product release code called MFPR-F researcher participated in the code coupling effort, where MFPR code was integrated into TRANSURANUS fuel performance code.

An IAEA Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on Forced to natural circulation transition in the Heavy liquid metal loop NACIE-UP is currently ongoing. A numerical benchmark will assess the capabilty of numerical codes to reproduce experimental data.

VUJE has delivered a manipulator for remote controlled plugging of VVER-1000 steam generator heat exchanging tubes for Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Following South Ukraine NPP, Khmelnitsky NPP and Rivne NPP , Zaporizhzhia is the fourth nuclear power plant in Ukraine which will be using this unique device manufactured by VUJE, a.s.

This work aimed to produce intermetallic samples of platinoid metals (active metal matrix) and lanthanides (co-metal) and via the method of Coupled Reduction, i.e. a thermal treatment of the combination of the lanthanide oxide and noble metal at high temperature, as high as 1100 °C, under a constant flow of H2. We have demonstrated by means of several techniques, such as Scanning Electron Microscope, Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy, Alpha Spectrometry and Radiographic Imaging, that this method, at defined experimental conditions (temperature, pressure and concentration) yields a metallic lanthanide thin film when using platinum as active metal matrix. Conversely, the formation of a bulk intermetallic compound was obtained when using Pd as matrix. Those systems will have applications in different nuclear physic and radiochemistry studies, such as irradiation targets for production of superheavy elements and for nuclear data determination.

ICONDE project conducts research into concrete design for hazardous waste management applications.

Instead of automated sampling for noble gases and analysing stations, manual system can be used to better accommodate costs for the equipment and flexibility of usage. One of this system has been developed by the Traceability Laboratory at the ENEA Research center of Brasimone, which was specially designed in order to keep the sampling equipment separate from the processing and measurement.

VUJE participation at Mochovce NPP Unit 3 commissioning.

This highlight presents a successful, in-house developed integration of an Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS) able to ionize gases to high charge states with a customized commercial MC-ICP-MS. The successful joining of the two ion flight paths is a milestone towards comprehensive routine analyses of solids, liquids, and gases using THE SAME MASS SPECTROMETER, the latter analyses free from atmospheric contamination. After implementation of an introduction system for gas mass spectrometry, routine analyses will comprise isotope ratio and relative abundance determinations of fission gases in used nuclear fuel. In addition to the unique versatility of the MC-EBIS-ICP-MS, inclusion of the EBIS further opens the little-studied field of mass spectrometry of highly charged ions.