Publications related to Nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents

Innovative thermophysical characterization of an ATF composite cladding: the case of silicon carbide

Nuclear power is a powerful technology that plays an important role in the fight against climate change, and research is continuously engaged in studies that could further improve its safety. After the Fukushima accident, Accident Tolerant Fuels research h ...

EPFL2024

Gamma noise to non-invasively monitor nuclear research reactors

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Oskari Ville Pakari, Pavel Frajtag, Tom Mager

Autonomous nuclear reactor monitoring is a key aspect of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s strategy to ensure nonproliferation treaty compliance. From the rise of small modular reactor technology, decentralized nuclear reactor fleets may strain the ...

Nature Research2024

Extension of the OFFBEAT fuel performance code to finite strains and validation against LOCA experiments

Andreas Pautz, Carlo Fiorina, Alessandro Scolaro, Edoardo Luciano Brunetto

The mechanical analysis of nuclear fuel behavior under base-irradiation conditions has traditionally been performed adopting the small-strain approximation. However, many cases of interest for fuel behavior involve the occurrence of large rod deformations ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2023

Towards coupling conventional with high-fidelity fuel behavior analysis tools

Andreas Pautz, Carlo Fiorina, Alessandro Scolaro, Edoardo Luciano Brunetto

Multi-dimensional fuel performance codes have the potential to enhance the understanding of complex phenomena affecting fuel integrity, but their application is often limited by the high computational cost. Recognizing that many multi-dimensional aspects s ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2022

Hidden-nucleons neural-network quantum states for the nuclear many-body problem

Giuseppe Carleo

We generalize the hidden-fermion family of neural network quantum states to encompass both continuous and discrete degrees of freedom and solve the nuclear many-body Schrodinger equation in a systematically improvable fashion. We demonstrate that adding hi ...

AMER PHYSICAL SOC2022

A design proposal for the European DEMO superconducting bus bars and current leads

Pierluigi Bruzzone, Kamil Sedlák, Rainer Wesche, Roberto Guarino

The integration of the feeder system in a tokamak involves complex engineering, manufacturing and logistics issues. Therefore, within the pre-conceptual design activities of the European DEMO fusion reactor, it is important to provide a preliminary sizing ...

2021

APT/TEM characterization of the element segregation in ferritic/martensitic steels after irradiation in SINQ

Lijuan Cui

Ferritic /martensitic (FM) steels are among the most important materials in various nuclear applications. As radiation-induced segregation (RIS) is one of the major factors for embrittlement of nuclear materials, thereofre it is essential to study the RIS ...

EPFL2021

Scoping the characteristics and benefits of a connected double-null configuration for power exhaust in EU-DEMO

Holger Reimerdes, Marco Wischmeier, Mirko Wensing

A double-null configuration is being considered for the EU-DEMO, due to its potential benefits for power exhaust arising from the use of two active divertors and magnetically disconnected low- and high-field sides. Using systematic parameter scans in fluid ...

Elsevier2021

Analysis of the first COLIBRI fuel rods oscillation campaign in the CROCUS reactor for the European project CORTEX

Andreas Pautz, Vincent Pierre Lamirand, Mathieu Hursin, Carlo Fiorina, Oskari Ville Pakari, Pavel Frajtag, Axel Guy Marie Laureau, Adolfo Rais, Daniel Godat

The Horizon2020 European project CORTEX aims at developing an innovative core monitoring technique that allows detecting anomalies in nuclear reactors, such as excessive vibrations of core internals, flow blockage, or coolant inlet perturbations. The techn ...

2021

Structural performance and mechanical properties investigation of spent nuclear fuel rods under static and dynamic bending loads

Efstathios Vlassopoulos

Currently, most Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) is kept safely in storage either at on-site facilities or at centralized interim storage sites. Moreover, many countries face delays in implementing their waste management programmes for SNF and high-level waste dis ...

EPFL2021

Modelling transport time to trauma centres and 30-day mortality in road accidents in Switzerland: an exploratory study

Stéphane Joost

BACKGROUND: Rapid access to a trauma centre for severely injured road accident victims, conceptualised as the Golden Hour, links access time to definitive treatment within 1 hour of trauma with reduced risks of morbidity and mortality. Access times have no ...

E M H SWISS MEDICAL PUBLISHERS LTD2021

A risk-based multi-level stress test methodology: application to six critical non-nuclear infrastructures in Europe

Anton Schleiss, José Pedro Gamito de Saldanha Calado Matos, Daniela Rodrigues

Recent natural disasters that seriously affected critical infrastructure (CI) with significant socio-economic losses and impact revealed the need for the development of reliable methodologies for vulnerability and risk assessment. In this paper, a risk-bas ...

2020

Understanding the Reconstruction of Personal Networks Through Residential Trajectories

Vincent Kaufmann, Guillaume Simon Joseph Drevon, Gil Viry

This article examines how residential trajectories influence the spatiality and composition of personal networks. Three mechanisms are considered: the addition of spatially close network members, the selection of spatially distant network members, and the ...

2020

Development of Advanced Methodologies for Monitoring and Modelling of Neutron Noise in Modern LWR Cores

Dionysios Chionis

Nuclear reactors are inherently stochastic systems, in which neutronic and thermal-hydraulic parameters fluctuate continuously even during steady-state conditions. In addition, structural components vibrate due to the coolant hydraulic forces. This stochas ...

EPFL2020

Preliminary design and analysis of Liquid Fuel Molten Salt Reactor using multi-physics code GeN-Foam

Carlo Fiorina

In this study, a hypothetical fast spectrum Liquid Fuel Molten Salt Reactor (LFMSR) core is modeled using the multiphysics C++ code GeN-Foam (General Nuclear Foam). GeN-Foam is based on OpenFOAM, a C++ opensource library for solution of continuum mechanics ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2020

A coarse-mesh methodology for modelling of single-phase thermal-hydraulics of ESFR innovative assembly design

Andreas Pautz, Konstantin Mikityuk, Carlo Fiorina, Stefan Radman

The GeN-Foam multi-physics code enables coupled thermal-hydraulic, neutronic, and thermal-mechanical analysis of fast reactor cores with 3-D unstructured deformable meshes. Advances within the Horizon2020 ESFR-SMART project, as well as trends towards highe ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2019

A solar-based sustainable urban design: The effects of city-scale street-canyon geometry on solar access in Geneva, Switzerland

Jean-Louis Scartezzini, Dan Assouline, Jérôme Henri Kämpf, Nahid Mohajeri Pour Rayeni

Buildings commonly have the largest share in the energy demand of a country, but they also offer sites for the generation of solar energy. Here we develop a methodology to analyse the effects of street-canyon geometries on the solar access of street surfac ...

2019

GEN-FOAM: An OpenFOAM (R)-Based Multi-physics Solver for Nuclear Reactor Analysis

Carlo Fiorina

A multi-physics solver for nuclear reactor analysis, named GeN-Foam (Generalized Nuclear Foam), has been developed by the Laboratory for Reactor Physics and System Behavior at the EPFL and at the Paul Scherrer Institut (Switzerland). The developed solver c ...

SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG2019

Measuring the Safety Climate of Academic Laboratories to Improve Safety Behaviours

Thierry Meyer, Damien Stricker, Nadia Gerweck

In 2005, two major accidents occurred at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Although there were no injuries, the material damages resulted in high financial losses. The management of safety was restructured as a consequence. One of the ma ...

2019

Tests and developments of a long-pulse high-power 170 GHz absorbing matched load

Timothy Goodman, Stefano Alberti, Jean-Philippe Hogge, Damien Fasel, Francesca Maria Poli, Francisco Sanchez, Ioannis Pagonakis

The future EC systems will consist of several gyrotron sources providing MW-level millimeter wave power at a frequency around or above 170 GHz. The development of matched loads is necessary to test the new sources, the components for the transmission lines ...

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2019