Supporting the Systems

Improving Nuclear Plant Safety

Design Safety Group Starts Experiment with UNM

A new effort underway between Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of New Mexico will help nuclear power plants improve their safety plans and designs.

The project, sponsored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is designed to examine the chemistry that might occur within the thousands of feet of piping within a nuclear power plant. The scientists want to know, in the event of a break in a main cooling water line serving the reactor vessel, would chemical debris be formed that could plug key screens and add to the accident's severity?

Thinking Ahead

Los Alamos Design, Safety and Risk Analysis is the group running the experiments, and one staffer noted, "If we can understand the chemical reactions that could occur in such a situation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be able to make any needed design alterations so that reactors, both those in use and those in the future, will not be vulnerable."

The Laboratory and University teams have built a grid of pipes and conduit to replicate the reactor setup, and a series of experiments are underway to test the system and analyze the chemistry occurring in such a scenario.

Testing Without Disruption

The advantage of exploring all the "what-if" scenarios is that through advanced technical tools and hands-on experiments, important scientific and safety questions can be examined. Without disrupting actual operations in a power plant, the researchers can point the way to safer operations and design. For more information about the Decisions Application Division in which such work is performed, see http://www.lanl.gov/source/organization/profiles/d_profile.shtml.

Modeling and Simulation

Los Alamos counter-terrorism modeling and simulation capabilities include:

• Cyber-protection tools derived from systems to protect high-bandwidth computer communications
• Transportation flow modeling
• Detailed analysis and modeling of the national power grid
• The National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center