SASPAM-SA - Safety Analysis of SMR with PAssive Mitigation strategies – Severe Accident

ID Call: HORIZON-EURATOM-2021-NRT-01 - Nuclear Research and Training 

Sapienza's role in the project: Other beneficiary

Scientific supervisor for Sapienza: Fabio Giannetti

Department: Astronautical, Electrical and Energy Engineering

Project start date: October 1, 2022

Project end date: September 30, 2026

Project Abstract:

The Horizon Europe project "Safety Analysis of SMR with PAssive Mitigation strategies - Severe Accidents" (SASPAM-SA), coordinated by ENEA, deals with topics of great interest to TSOs, regulatory commissions, research centres, universities and industries in the nuclear sector such as:

• Systematic analysis of the applicability and transfer of the current available experimental database for typical severe accident phenomenologies (developed for the current generations of large water-cooled reactors) for safety assessment studies of upcoming small water-cooled integral reactors (Integral Pressurized Water Reactor - iPWRs)
• Analysis of the predictive capabilities of current numerical simulation codes capable of assessing typical Severe Accident (SA) phenomenologies.

Benefiting directly from work carried out or in progress on iPWRs, where the investigation of SA is still limited, but Defence in Depth (DiD) levels 1,2,3 are studied in detail, this project can contribute, by going beyond the state of the art, to investigate the key elements to create an independent European viewpoint on the safety of future iPWRs with respect to DiD levels 4/5. The key objectives of the SASPAM-SA project will be

• to study the applicability and transfer of the knowledge and operational know-how developed for large LWRs to iPWRs, in view of the forthcoming requirements for severe accident analysis and evaluation in emergency planning areas, within the framework of European licensing procedures;
• accelerate the licensing and siting process of iPWRs in Europe.

In addition, there are specific research actions on accident-resistant fuels (ATF) and the retention capabilities of molten corium within the vessel (IVMR).

The proposed project results should therefore support the licensing process of iPWRs, bringing out the key elements of the safety demonstration required for this purpose.

Sapienza's role will be to actively participate in the development of MELCOR inputs and the definition of hypothetical accident scenarios (WP2), in the verification of MELCOR's simulation capabilities for typical IVMR phenomenologies and containment in iPWRs, as well as to coordinate the activities of WP7 (Communication, dissemination and exploitation).