NRC tapping tech for better analysis of nuclear accidents

16.03.2011
Long before the nuclear disaster in Japan began unfolding this week, scientists in the U.S. have been trying to gain a better and more realistic picture of precisely what would happen if a similar accident occurred in this country.

For the past few years, researchers from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have been engaged in a project called State of the Art Reactor Consequence Assessment (SOARCA), to better understand how a nuclear reactor would behave in a severe accident, as well as what sort of radioactive release it would cause.

Similar research on hypothetical accidents at nuclear power plants have been conducted by the NRC and international nuclear safety groups for the past 25 years.

What's , says the NRC, is that it uses modern computing resources and modeling software to generate more accurate and realistic accident simulations. It also examines extremely rare, "one-in-a-million"-type accidents that could have a significant impact.

Such modeling and analyses of hypthetical accidents is designed to help stakeholders develop better protections and responses to nuclear accidents.

SOARCA models also take into account some of the new accident mitigation technologies and strategies that are deployed in nuclear power plants these days. The models factor in updated emergency preparedness measures and plant improvements that were put in place after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.