June 1, 2009

Nuclear: Realistic Simulation Assists in Nuclear Power Plant Certification

Tim Webb

From the onset of the civilian nuclear era (marked by President Dwight Eisenhower’s "Atoms for Peace" speech to the United Nations in 1953), there has been a strong awareness of the importance of safety within the nuclear energy industry. Western experts have devoted much time and effort to ensuring the integrity of reactor cores and facility containment. The only major accidents in the history of civilian nuclear power — Three Mile Island in the U.S. (1979) and Chernobyl in Ukraine (1986) — are offset by more than 12,700 cumulative reactor-years of safe commercial operation in 32 countries.

Global cooperation on nuclear safety issues is now widespread. In 1996, the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ratified the Convention on Nuclear Safety. This was the first international legal instrument to establish mandatory benchmarks for nuclear plant siting, design, construction, operation, resourcing, assessment, and verification of safety, quality assurance, and emergency preparedness. All countries with operating nuclear power facilities are party to the convention and are expected to bring their plants up to the latest IAEA standards.

Some 439 commercial nuclear power plants around the globe now supply upwards of 16% of the world’s electrical energy needs. Most of them produce steam-driven electric power from uranium-fueled reactors. The majority are high-pressurized, "cold-water" units; others use boiling water at lower pressures. In addition, some 240 research reactors are currently being used to generate radioactive materials for scientific and defense purposes. (Four hundred more of these have either been shut down or decommissioned.)