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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.
Marcel Y. Ballinger, Peter C. Owczarski, K. Hashimoto, G. Nishio, S. Jordan, W. Lindner
Nuclear Technology | Volume 81 | Number 2 | May 1988 | Pages 278-292
Technical Paper | Nuclear Aerosol Science / Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34097
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For analyzing the thermodynamic and radiological consequences of solvent fire accidents in reprocessing plants, intensive investigations on burning contaminated condensible liquids were performed at Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe (KfK), Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL), and Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI). In small- and large-scale tests, KfK studied the behavior of kerosene, tributyl phosphate, HNO3 mixture fires in open air and closed containments. The particle release from uranium-contaminated pool fires was investigated. Different filter devices were tested. For analyzing fires, PNL has developed the FIRIN computer code and has generated small-scale fire data in support of that code. The results of the experiments in which contaminated combustible liquids were burned demonstrate the use of the FIRIN code in simulating a solvent fire in a nuclear reprocessing plant. To demonstrate the safety evaluation of a postulated solvent fire in an extraction process of a reprocessing plant, JAERI conducted large-scale fire tests. Behavior of solvent fires in a cell and the integrity of high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters due to smoke plugging were investigated. To evaluate confinement of radioactive materials released from the solvent fire, the ventilation systems with HEPA filters were tested under postulated fire conditions.