When developing safety-critical software such as reactor protection systems (RPS) in nuclear power plants, a demonstration of software trust (e.g., safety) is not only absolutely essential but also usually mandated by government authorities. While automated generation of fault trees has become possible with increased use of formal specifications, industrial use of fault trees has been limited p...

Safety-critical systems are systems where it is essential that system operation is always safe [1]. Therefore, rigorous quality demonstration is important when developing software in safety-critical system. Generally, safety-critical software demands extremely high-confidence verification and validation (V&V) techniques. Additionally, software V&V should be performed in parallel with software d...

Advances in modeling and simulation (M&S) are needed for the development and design of future generation reactor plants, particularly for providing the desired a priori assurance that performance, safety and economic goals are met. This paper summarizes the M&S needs for two types of reactor systems, the Sodium Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR), which enables multi-recycle of actinides to avoid nuclear...

The EvalFM project was initiated in order to investigate the applicability of formal methods in the development of safety-critical software-based systems. The overall goal was to explore the strengths and limitations of these methods through practical experience on a realistic example. The present paper presents the main results from the project, related to a case study on the applicability of ...

This report was prepared for the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to provide background information on the evolution of the term "safety culture" and the perceived relationship between safety culture and the safety of operations in nuclear power generation and other hazardous technologies. There is a widespread belief that safety culture is an important contributor to the safety of oper...

Thermal Process Safety Based on Reaction Kinetics and Reactor Dynamics Charles Guinand, Michal Dabros, Bertrand Roduit, Thierry Meyer, Francis Stoessel HES-SO Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale, Haute école d’ingénierie et d’architecture Fribourg, Institut ChemTech, 1705 Fribourg, Switzerland Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland AKTS AG, http://www.akt...

Irradiation-induced hardening is an important phenomenon concerning the nuclear reactor safety, because it induces the embrittlement of reactor pressure vessel steels. This phenomenon, however, can also be applied for the modification of hardness of alloys. In the case of FeCu alloys, we have reported that GeV heavy-ion irradiation remarkably increases the hardness [1]. Volkov et al. have expla...

This book provides a concise and up-to-date summary of the essential thermo-hydraulic analyses and design principles of nuclear reactors for electricity generation. Beginning with the basic nuclear physics, it leads through technical and quantitative analyses to descriptions of both the normal operation of the various modern nuclear reactor designs and the analyses of the possible departures fr...

Assignments based on dynamic simulation of a batch reactor and a semi-batch reactor in which exothermic reactions are conducted, are used to teach students the various aspects of process safety. The students can observe temperature runaway taking place because of incidents, such as overcharging, cooling water failure, pipe blockage and excessive initial heating. They can derive various strategi...

A detailed safety analysis was performed for the inertial confinement fusion reactor OSIRIS. The radioactivity induced in the carbon fabric chamber concrete shield and Flibe breeder is very low allowing for their disposal at the end of the reactor life as Class A low level waste (LLW). The biological dose rate after shutdown behind the reactor biological shield shield is very low (0.11 μ rem/hr...