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Title: PIUS reactor progress summary

Conference · · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)
OSTI ID:5418038
;  [1]
  1. ABB Atom AB-Sweden, Vaesteras (Sweden)

Operating excellence is becoming the key concept for assuring the safety of the present generation of light water reactors (LWRs). Human excellence is a scarce commodity, however, and in uncertain supply and of questionable durability. The basis for ABB Atom's long-term development program is a firm conviction that a truly large-scale future expansion of nuclear power must be based on a technology in which safe operation makes much reduced demands on this scarce commodity. The present goal in the United States is to obtain U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission design certification by the mid-1990s with lead plant construction closely following. The difference in principle between PIUS and other (existing or proposed) LWR concepts is explained. In other LWR concepts, protection of core integrity, and thereby avoidance of accidents with significant environmental impact, depends on the necessarily uncertain status of safety equipment and on the actions of plant operators. In contrast, in PIUS, core integrity in transients is ensured by the reactor system configuration itself and the resulting self-protective thermohydraulic feedback mechanism. Extended core cooling by submergence in water is assured without any external intervention in spite of any credible structural failures. the safety of an operating core becomes practically invulnerable to human mistake or mischief.

OSTI ID:
5418038
Report Number(s):
CONF-891103-; CODEN: TANSA; TRN: 91-024558
Journal Information:
Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States), Vol. 60; Conference: Winter meeting of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and nuclear power and technology exhibit, San Francisco, CA (United States), 26-30 Nov 1989; ISSN 0003-018X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English