We estimate the effect of local monitoring and information disclosure on safety and compliance with self-reporting standards in the French nuclear sector. We use a novel dataset on deviations from safety, radiological and environmental standards recorded in the French nuclear fleet since 1978....

Seismic probabilistic safety assessment (SPSA) is a systematic method for examining and evaluating the risk from earthquake-initiated accidents. The significant advances in the area of SPSA since the initial publication in 2002 of Technical Opinion Paper No. 2: Seismic Probabilistic Safety...

Following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, many countries began funding research and development on nuclear fuel designs with enhanced accident tolerance (ATFs). ATFs have improved designs, materials and performance features compared with those of the current generation...

Climate change will create specific risks and challenges for nuclear power plants and the electricity system as a whole. Extreme weather events caused by climate change – such as floods, storms, heat waves and droughts – have already affected the operation of nuclear power plants. Any...

CSNI Technical Opinion Paper No. 17: Fire Probabilistic Safety Assessments for Nuclear Power Plants: 2019 Update provides an authoritative review of the current status and use of the fire PSA in nuclear power plants. The report demonstrates that while fires at a particular plant site are highly...

Detailreich-kritische Geschichte der Nutzung der Kernenergie in Deutschland, beginnend mit der naiven Euphorie der 1950er-Jahre über die Protestbewegungen bis hin zum durch Tschernobyl und Fukushima mitverursachtem Niedergang. (Rolf Raschka)

Meeting the growing demand for energy, and electricity in particular, while addressing the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to ensure security of energy supply, is one of the most difficult challenges facing the world’s economies. No single technology can respond to this challenge,...

Nuclear power is confronted with a number of challenges in the near term. One major constraint is the economics of nuclear power, driven by both the high capital costs and financial uncertainties. The second is concern about catastrophic accidents; despite the development of newer reactor...

Most of the current nuclear fuel safety criteria were established during the 1960s and early 1970s. Although these criteria were validated against experiments with fuel designs available at that time, a number of tests were based on unirradiated fuels. Additional verification was performed as...