Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recommend that the position of the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) should be strengthened. Specifically, it should be possible for final decisions to be taken by ENSI rather than by the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC). In addition, committees should submit their reports directly to ENSI.
In 2008, general licence applications were submitted for three new nuclear power plants in Switzerland: the Mühleberg replacement nuclear power plant, the Beznau 1 & 2 replacement nuclear power plants, and a new construction project at Niederamt in the canton of Solothurn. For the purposes of the general licences, ENSI began by examining whether the […]
HRA, Human Reliability Analysis: the HRA project examines the reliability of human actions, taking account of various boundary conditions. The state of the art is the determination of failure probabilities for actions that are required during an incident, but are not performed. On the other hand, there is no efficient method for the systematic identification […]
People, organisation and safety culture have a major influence on the safety of a nuclear plant. The research projects supported by ENSI in this area deal with the influence of human actions in incident situations, as well as requirements profiles for staff at nuclear power plants. The following projects in the field of people, organisation […]
The objective of the international Mont Terri Rock Laboratory Research Project is to study the geological, hydrogeological, geochemical and geomechanical properties of Opalinus clay. These properties are critically important for the assessment of the safety and technical feasibility of a deep geological repository for radioactive waste in this type of rock. In 2009, ENSI’s research […]
Development and Research Work in the Field of Radiation Measurement Technology: this project deals with the verification and calibration of dosimetry systems and radiation measurement instruments. On the one hand, importance attaches to personal dosimetry, i.e. the measurement of the outer and inner radiation exposure for people. This field also covers measurements of the release […]
OECD MCCI, Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction: the OECD MCCI (Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction) project concerns severe accidents in which the reactor core melts due to the absence of cooling, after which the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) also fails. In the reactor building, the corium reaches the concrete foundation, which should be prevented from […]
OECD CABRI Waterloop Project: experiments on the high burn-up behaviour of fuel rods in case of rapid reactivity incidents were carried out on the CABRI research reactor in Cadarache, France. These incidents occur when the reactor briefly becomes over-critical due to the rapid, uncontrolled movement of a control element or control rod. The project is […]
Feasibility Study for Non-Destructive Measurements on the Steel Pressure Shell of the Primary Containment of Nuclear Power Plants: the primary circuit, including the reactor pressure vessel, is enclosed by a steel pressure shell as part of the defence-in-depth safety barriers. Depending on the structural design of the nuclear power plant, this is directly surrounded by […]
