Confinement of the Radiological Source Term During Beyond-Design-Basis Events in Future Pressurized Water Reactors

Safety requirements on future nuclear power plants converge in the common objective that these plants should be so safe that even in case of a severe accident there will be no need of off-site emergency actions such as an evacuation or resettlement of the population from the vicinity of the damaged plant. It is shown by the example of a future 1400-MW(electric) pressurized water reactor plant that this goal can be attained in principle by providing a double containment with the annulus vented via an appropriate emergency standby filter. Within the framework of severe accident consequence mitigation, a set of parameters for accident conditions and emergency filter efficiencies is elaborated under which the German lower levels of intervention for evacuation are not attained.