Nuclear energy represents an important option for future energy supply, but the nuclear option could be jeopardized if severe reactor accidents, such as the ones at Three Mile Island or Chernobyl, were to continue to occur anywhere in the world. The PIUS (Process Inherent Ultimate Safety) reactor development effort is based on the conviction that future developments of nuclear energy for civili...

The contribution describes the new VR-1 training reactor control and power protection system at the Czech Technical University in Prague. The control system provides safety and control functions, calculates average values of the important variables and sends data and system status to the human-machine interface. The upgraded control system is based on a high quality industrial PC. The operating...

The contribution describes the new measuring and protection system of the VR-1 training reactor. The measuring and protection system upgrade is an integral part of the reactor I&C upgrade. The new measuring and protection system of the VR-1 reactor consists of the operational power measuring and the independent power protection systems. Both systems measure the reactor power and power rate, ini...

A concise overview is given on materials applied in fusion technology. The influence of plasma operation on the behaviour of reactor components and diagnostic systems is discussed with emphasis on effects caused by fast particles reaching the reactor wall. Issues related to primary and induced radioactivity are reviewed: tritium inventory and transmutation. Tritium breeding in the reactor blank...

The Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor (ALMR) Actinide Recycle System is being developed in the United States for application early in the 21st century. The ALMR is a major part of this system and has missions beginning with near-term (10 years), medium term (15-20 years), and long-term (beyond 20 years) horizons. These missions use the same reactor design with modifications only to the reactor core...

Reliable knowledge of the uncertainties in important reactor parameters, like criticality, radiation load on the reactor components, neutron/gamma ray flux, nuclear heating and dose are crucial for nuclear safety concerns. Uncertainties are introduced either through the calculational algorithms or through the data uncertainties. The paper addresses the uncertainties in the reactor parameters li...

The Bush Administration has made the expansion of nuclear power generation a centerpiece of its domestic energy policy. However, the White House has not addressed the practical issue of how to overcome the nearly three-decade-long aversion among U.S. electric utilities to investing in new nuclear plants. In today's deregulating market, utilities will not build new nuclear power plants unless th...