Fast Nuclear Reactor PEC Brasimone ENEA

Sodium Cooler Fast Nuclear Reactor PEC Brasimone ENEA

In Italy, as supplier of AM and SNIA Techint we worked over the experimental sodium cooled fast reactor at Monte Brasimone’s ENEA PEC (Prova Elementi Combustibile - Fuel Element Test Reactor). It represents one of the major Italian contribution to the Fast Breeder Reactor Research and Development Program in Europe. ENEA R&D programme on Nuclear Fission, funded by the Italian Ministry of economic Development.

The safety criteria adopted as design bases for the PEC reactor provide all the measures needed to reject in the area of residual risk the severe accidents leading to a loss of integrity of the containment barriers. Nevertheless, consequences of severe, very unlikely, events have been analysed in order to verify the efficiency of preventive measures envisaged in the beyond basis accident area.

The paper summarizes the inherent and passive safety features of the plant and the main safety analysis results with particular emphasis on severe accident study. Furthermore, the results of the probabilistic analysis on containment integrity in a severe accident scenario are presented. Such results confirm the reactor safety margins: the probability of radioactivity containment failure is extremely low; operators have sufficient time to take the prescribed countermeasures; radioactive releases are well within the site acceptability limits.