ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
S. W. Hong, Y. S. Na, S. H. Hong, J. H. Song
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 3 | December 2016 | Pages 538-552
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-9
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Some advanced reactors adapt the in-vessel corium retention concept by cooing the outside wall of the reactor vessel in severe accidents. If a reactor vessel failure happens in this case, the molten corium in the reactor vessel is directly injected into the water in the reactor cavity without the process of a free fall. Experiments using ZrO2 and molten corium to simulate the conditions in which the reactor vessel is fully flooded were recently carried out at the Test for Real cOrium Interaction with water (TROI) experimental facility, and the results are compared with the data produced under conditions in which the reactor vessel is partially flooded. It was observed that the melt front velocity in the water under submerged reactor conditions is much faster than that under partially flooded reactor cavity conditions, and a large bubble was observed at the surface of the mixing zone under submerged reactor conditions. Accordingly, it is estimated that the breakup of the melt jet in the water during the fuel-coolant interaction (FCI) test under submerged reactor conditions would be different than that of the FCI test under partially flooded reactor cavity conditions.