News from ETSON and its members*

26 Sep 2022 | ENEA | Raman spectroscopy as a powerful tool for characterization of graphite used in nuclear plants Newspicture Raman spectroscopy as a powerful tool for characterization of graphite used in nuclear plants

Graphite used in nuclear plants must be disposed of properly. Prolonged aging, even at room temperature, can lead to the formation of different species, such as graphite oxide, which has the possibility of being dispersed into the environment much more easily and this entails a risk that must be taken into consideration

26 Sep 2022 | NRA | Uncertainty treatment for clearance measurement Newspicture Uncertainty treatment for clearance measurement

Clearance measurement should be performed as a conformity assessment of the evaluated contamination values to the regulatory limit, considering the measurement’s uncertainty, including the uncertainty of the ratio of the activity concentration of the difficult to measure nuclide to that of the key nuclide. The key issues for the treatment of these uncertainty were summarized.

26 Sep 2022 | RATEN ICN | Investigations for Use of Advanced CANDU Bundles Designs with Increased Numbers of Elements Newspicture Investigations for Use of Advanced CANDU Bundles Designs with Increased Numbers of Elements

Advanced concepts of CANDU fuel bundles with more than 37 elements are analyzed comparatively to the 37-rods standard fuel bundle design from the safety performance point of view.

26 Sep 2022 | LEI | OpenFOAM turbulent combustion solver development at Lithuanian Energy Institute Newspicture OpenFOAM turbulent combustion solver development at Lithuanian Energy Institute

Scientists of Lithuanian Energy Institute have been developing an open-source turbulent combustion solver flameFoam, based on OpenFOAM toolkit. Code to code analysis and comparisons with experiments showed that flameFoam mostly corresponds to the state-of-the-art currently achieved in the field.

26 Sep 2022 | ENEA | Application of Non-Parametric Control Charts (Statistical Process Control) to radioxenon distribution at International Monitoring System stations of the CTBTO Newspicture Application of Non-Parametric Control Charts (Statistical Process Control) to radioxenon distribution at International Monitoring System stations of the CTBTO

Application of statistical non-parametric methods to radioxenon distributions in atmosphere in order to study the atmospheric background fluctuations and the influence of anthropogenic activities.

26 Sep 2022 | NRA | An empirical method for estimating source vicinity ground-motion levels of inland crustal earthquakes with sources difficult to identify in advance Newspicture An empirical method for estimating source vicinity ground-motion levels of inland crustal earthquakes with sources difficult to identify in advance

NRA Secretariat experts developed an empirical method for estimating source vicinity ground-motion levels on hard bedrock and annual exceedance probabilities for inland crustal earthquakes with sources difficult to identify in advance.

26 Sep 2022 | LEI | Lithuanian Energy Institute contributes to fusion research at JET facility Newspicture Lithuanian Energy Institute contributes to fusion research at JET facility

For the examination of plasma and impurity transport in the DT experimental campaign, energy balance, dependency on discharge, and the time evolution of radiation loss profiles are provided by LEI scientists. Indeed, the record braking pulse  is also being analyzed here at LEI.

26 Sep 2022 | ENEA | Safety Analysis of SMR with PAssive Mitigation strategies - Severe Accident (SASPAM-SA) Horizon Euratom Project Newspicture Safety Analysis of SMR with PAssive Mitigation strategies - Severe Accident (SASPAM-SA) Horizon Euratom Project

Safety Analyses of SMR with Passive Mitigation strategies - Severe Accident (SASPAM-SA) project proposal has been submitted and has been founded in HORIZON-EURATOM-2021-NRT-01-01, “Safety of operating nuclear power plants and research reactors”. The project is coordinated by ENEA (Italy) and its key objective  is to investigate the applicability and transfer of the operating large-LWR reactor knowledge and know-how to the near-term deployment of iPWR, in the view of severe accident  and emergency planning zone  European licensing analyses needs.

26 Sep 2022 | NRA | NRA research on fuel cladding ductility loss at operational temperature due to radial Zr hydrides Newspicture NRA research on fuel cladding ductility loss at operational temperature due to radial Zr hydrides

NRA conducted tube burst tests and post-test analyses on high-burnup spent nuclear fuel claddings to investigate the condition for the occurrence of macroscopic hydrogen-induced ductile-brittle transition at operational temperatures with quantitative consideration of precipitated Zr hydrides' morphology.

26 Sep 2022 | NRA | Application of simulation to debris-bed formation in an actual plant Newspicture Application of simulation to debris-bed formation in an actual plant

We have developed a debris bed formation prediction method that takes into account accident scenarios and physical properties by providing THERMOS with the analysis results in MELCOR.

30 Apr 2022 | ETSON | Ongoing Hydrogen projects under the ETSON auspices NP Ongoing Hydrogen projects under the ETSON auspices

The Fukushima events have highlighted the need for improved safety approaches and numerical tools to assess hydrogen risk. In this regard and under the auspices of ETSON, two main projects are underway. The first is to organize benchmarks for hydrogen combustion codes and the second is to develop Technical Safety Assessment Guidelines (TSAG) for hydrogen risk assessment expected to be completed by the end of 2022. 

30 Apr 2022 | SURO | Award by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic NP Award by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic

SÚRO v.v.i. together with ÚJV Řež, a.s. and Centrum výzkumu Řež s.r.o. received from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TAČR) the TAČR 2021 Award in the category "GOVERNANCE" for the project "Computational model for thermomechanical behaviour of a fuel rod with the inclusion of degradation processes of nuclear fuel coverage" (TRANSURANUS Project). 

30 Apr 2022 | GRS | Cosmic particles allow X-ray vision NP Cosmic particles allow X-ray vision

GRS experts develop computational code that can be used to simulate muon radiographic images in order to test the suitability of the method for examining storage casks for spent fuel assemblies.

30 Apr 2022 | JSI | Securing nuclear fuel for European research reactors NP ENEEP Demonstration course “Experimental Reactor Physics” at the Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

In the framework of the EU-funded project “ENEEP – European Nuclear Experimental Educational Platform”, a demonstration course titled “Experimental Reactor Physics” was successfully carried out at the Jožef Stefan Institute for a group of 10 students in February 2022.

30 Apr 2022 | IRSN | IRSN launches a new dosimeter design RPL-neutron NP IRSN launches a new dosimeter design RPL-neutron

As part of the radiological monitoring of workers exposed to ionizing radiation, IRSN provides dosimetry services by continuing its R&D efforts to make available state-of-the-art dosimeters. This is the case for the "new generation" RPL-neutron dosimeter, which was put into service on January 1, 2022. 

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