Abstract
The EU SARNET project (Severe Accidents Research NETwork
of excellence) unites the research efforts of 47
organisations from 24 countries worldwide to help to
resolve the most important remaining uncertainties and
safety issues on severe accidents (SA) in existing and
future water-cooled nuclear power plants (NPP). The
SARNET2 project started in April 2009 for 4 years in the
7th Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Commission.
One of the most important parts of SARNET concerns
evaluation of the "source term", involving the
development of methods to calculate the time, history,
and chemical and physical forms of radionuclides that
could be released to the environment, following
containment breach and/or venting in the course of a
severe accident.
A major part of the source term research concerns iodine,
in view of its high radiotoxicity. Relevant work
performed in this part of SARNET2 concerns firstly
small-scale experiments to examine the behaviour of
iodine in the circuit and reactor containment with a view
to developing relevant computer models such as those in
the European reference code ASTEC; followed by
development and improvement of such models, and finally
their assessment using independent data, such as those
from the integral test series Phébus FP and THAI. An
important parameter is the amount of organic iodide
present in the containment, as this cannot easily be
removed by filtration when using containment venting.
Research has concentrated on the following important
aspects: the behaviour of iodine oxides, interaction of
iodine in the containment atmosphere with paints (as this
can generate organic iodide), iodine interactions in the
sump and exchanges with the atmosphere, and iodine
transport in the primary circuit particularly concerning
kinetic limitations, which mean that the relative
compositions of material arriving at and in the
containment may not reflect an equilibrium state. This
paper summarises the progress made in SARNET2 to date in
the iodine chemistry area, and indicates what results are
to be expected at the end of the project next year, 2013
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | DVD-ROM Proceedings |
| Subtitle of host publication | 21st International Conference Nuclear Energy for New Europe, NENE 2012 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
| MoE publication type | A4 Article in a conference publication |
| Event | 21st International Conference Nuclear Energy for New Europe, NENE 2012 - Ljubljana, Slovenia Duration: 5 Sept 2012 → 7 Sept 2012 |
Conference
| Conference | 21st International Conference Nuclear Energy for New Europe, NENE 2012 |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | NENE 2012 |
| Country/Territory | Slovenia |
| City | Ljubljana |
| Period | 5/09/12 → 7/09/12 |