Tests planned to justify source term reduction

摘要

Developers of small modular reactors (SMR) have asserted that the devices' inherent safety features should allow for much different radioactive source terms than those assumed for large light-water reactors, and, therefore, that the reduced extent to which radioactive material could travel from SMRs in even the most extreme accidents should justify much smaller emergency planning zones for SMRs than for large LWRs. Getting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to agree on these points has been an uphill battle, and so the Electric Power Research Institute has proposed a series of tests to determine whether the dispersion mechanisms believed to pertain to SMRs-in particular, the integral pressurized water reactors (iPWR) proposed for near-term certification and licensing-are in fact valid.