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Swiss nuclear power and the case for long-term operation
Designed for 40 years but built to last far longer, Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have all entered long-term operation. Yet age alone says little about safety or performance. Through continuous upgrades, strict regulatory oversight, and extensive aging management, the country’s reactors are being prepared for decades of continued operation, in line with international practice.
J. M. Cardito, E. V. Somers, J. H. McWhirter
Nuclear Technology | Volume 28 | Number 1 | January 1976 | Pages 119-126
Technical Paper | Fuels for Pulsed Reactor / Reactor Siting | doi.org/10.13182/NT76-A31545
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The containment capability of mined subterranean caverns for siting nuclear power plants depends on the flow of groundwater through porous media surrounding the cavern. For a simple cylindrical containment cavern, design correlations were developed relating depth of burial to cavern overpressure. Considering 50 psig as the maximum containment overpressure following a postulated loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), the minimum depth of burial below the groundwater table for a cavern of 50-ft radius is ∼200 ft. These conditions assure no cavern water flow through the rock to the atmosphere and no cavern contaminant seepage into the groundwater following a postulated LOCA.