Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Research:
Nuclear Safety
HSE has bilateral research exchange agreements with:
Within the NRC umbrella arrangement it participates in:
HSE has carried out a UK consultation on the 7th Framework programme
The 6th Framework Programme started in 2003. There is a part devoted to the safety of existing installations.
There are new funding 'instruments': Networks of Excellence, Integrated Projects, and Infrastructure. ND wishes to promote UK participation in FP6, and has participated in consultations with the European Commission to provide a UK input to the definition of the Programme of Work. ND organised, in conjunction with DBERR, DOH and DEFRA a workshop mainly for the research community to promote UK participation in the Euratom FP6 programme. The workshop presentations are attached:
General information on the Euratom 6th Framework Programme is available on the EUROPA website and on the CORDIS Nuclear Fission and Radiation Protection home page.
Information on Euratom Integrated Projects (IPs) and Networks of Excellence (NoEs)
In the fission safety area, the UK is participating in the following IPs and NoEs:
For more information on EU FP6 contact Nuclearresearchandsupport@hse.gsi.gov.uk
The attached table lists the Euratom FP5 projects in which UK participation was part of the HSC co-ordinated programme of nuclear safety research.
| Name | Abstract | Type |
|---|---|---|
| OPTSAM | Evaluate impact of severe accident management strategies and optimise their implementation to minimise adverse radiological effects. | Shared cost (SC) |
| CEMSIS | Development of safety justifications for widely used safety systems (control & protection) - including commercial, off the shelf (COTS) equipment | SC |
| ADIMEW | Large scale verification of the performance of defect bearing dissimilar welds (as found on PWR primary circuit pipe work). Results will be used to improve procedures for assessment of stability and safety of aged dissimilar welds. | SC |
| VOCALIST | Development and validation of procedures for assessing crack-tip constraint in nuclear pressure boundary components | SC |
| PISA | Improve predictability of pressure vessel brittle failure mechanisms associated with the segregation of phosphorous to internal grain boundaries as a result of irradiation. | SC |
| SPIQNAR | development of improved methods for improved crack detection and measurement | SC |
| VRIMOR | Development of computer simulation (virtual reality) tools to assist personnel training for, and optimisation of, maintenance, inspection and repair. | SC |
| JSRI | Joint safety research index - continuation from FP4, aims to provide EU wide index of research being performed thus provide opportunity for co-operation or avoidance of duplication. | Concerted action (CA) |
| PRISM | Human factors network - share best practice in HF approaches, identify common problems etc. | CA - in Sustainable technology area, rather than Euratom part of FP5 |
Updated June 2005
HSE participates in the work of the EU Institute of Energy at the Joint Research Centre Petten in the Netherlands. Information on the projects and networks organised by JRC is contained in the ODIN website.
Information from the NRI has been contributed to a European LWR safety research index. The EC Fifth Framework Programme JSRI Project has released the 3rd version of the JSRI database. The database now contains 1098 project descriptions which are linked to 641 contacts related to nuclear safety. The GRS Nuclear Research Center of Excellence Index can be viewed visiting the option "links of general interest".
For more information contact Axel Breest, E-Mail: BRE@grs.de
NSD participates in several OECD-NEA projects:
For more information on these international agreements contact Nuclearresearchandsupport@hse.gsi.gov.uk.
Updated June 2005
NSD participates in IAEA Co-ordinated Research Projects as appropriate.
Graphite has been used as a moderator and reflector of neutrons in more than 125 nuclear power plants, mostly in the UK (Magnox and AGRs), France (UNGGs) and the former USSR (RBMK). In addition many experimental and plutonium production reactors have been built in Russia, China, the USA, UK and France. Other reactor types also use boronated graphite or carbon as neutron reflectors or neutron shielding. Graphite is also used for fuel sleeves and other components. The core of a typical graphite reactor may contain 2000 tons of graphite. It fulfils a structural purpose with respect to the core.
Knowledge of the change of properties of graphite with irradiation is important to the operation and safety of the Magnox reactors and the AGRs. Decommissioning of the older graphite moderated reactors now shut down also needs knowledge of the graphite properties. There is a concern about stored Wigner energy (which caused the 1957 fire) being a potential problem the decommissioning of the old Windscale piles. The prototype Windscale AGR is also being decommissioned at the moment.
Data from Dragon, a prototype high temperature helium cooled reactor at Winfrith is also of interest, and had to be retrieved from the European Union historical archives at the University of Florence.
Work on graphite is less wide spread than the extensive work that has been done on steels, as it is not relevant for light water reactors.
The relevant data for graphite are:
UK data on graphite is owned by AEAT, BNFL and British Energy. They have set up a national database at Bath University. The data in this database has been made available to an international database set up by the IAEA in Vienna, although these data are only available to other users after prior authorisation from the UK participants. AEAT data are historical data, whereas the BE and BNFL data are used for their operating stations. At the UK request, the Intellectual Property Rights remain with the original data owners, and the data contributors accept no liability for any loss or damage arising from any use of the data. The chairman of the database steering committee comes from the UK (Dr. A. Wickham).
Membership is by country, and the initial data supplying participants are Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA. Russia, China and South Africa will join soon. Eskom and Toyo Tansa, a Japanese graphite manufacturer, sponsor the database by contributing financially. France declined to participate in the international database because of proliferation concerns related to access.
There is also interest for new technologies, such as the pebble bed modular reactor, a high temperature helium cooled reactor, a project in which Eskom (South Africa), AEAT and Juelich (Germany) are participating.
The NSD contact for further information on the graphite database is Nuclearresearchandsupport@hse.gsi.gov.uk
For more information on IAEA, see www.iaea.org.
Updated 15 August 2003
Information on current waste management research projects have been submitted to the IAEA Waste Management Research Abstracts (WMRA) Programme (http://www.iaea.org/cgi-bin/irais.showwmt.pl?wmwmra.wmt).