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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.
Steven A. Wright, Erhard A. Fischer, Peter K. Mast, Gustav Schumacher
Nuclear Technology | Volume 71 | Number 1 | October 1985 | Pages 326-340
Technical Paper | Analyse | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33730
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
During an unprotected loss-of-flow accident in a liquid-metal fast breeder reactor, the mode of fuel disruption in sodium-voided channels and the subsequent fuel and clad motion are important issues that determine the further accident sequence. To study these phenomena, a series of in-pile fuel disruption experiments, FD2/4, were performed, and the fuel behavior was recorded by high-speed cinematography. Power transients typical of a heterogeneous (e.g., Clinch River Breeder Reactor) and a homogeneous (e.g., SNR-300, Federal Republic of Germany) core design were employed. In the first case, large-scale liquid swelling was observed, whereas in the second case, disruption by solid-state breakup occurred. Both observations provided direct experimental confirmation of the assumption usually made in the accident analysis, and thus removed still existing modeling uncertainties concerning the disruption behavior.