Following a major accident at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, nuclear safety standards have been raised considerably. Thus, heavy-accident analysis also became an integral part of safety reports. In the world, the MELCOR computer program, which can be obtained through participation in the U.S., is used to independently verify the analysis of major accidents. Slovenia has been a member of the CSARP ((Cooperative Severe Accident Research Program) program since the end of 2015, and has participated in it since 1998-2005. As part of the CSARP research program, the MELCOR Code Assessment Program is being held in the US each year, while due to the wide-spread use of the program, regional annual meetings for European (EMUG - European MELCOR User Group) and Asian (AMUG - Asian MELCOR User Group) to MELCOR users are also held.
This year's CSARP / MCAP meeting took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA from 3-6. June 2019. At a meeting attended by participants from 20 countries, the U.S. NRC, run by the CSARP program, MELCOR developers from Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, and CSARP partners presented their activities. The meeting was divided into the following sections:
- Research on major accidents - activities, computer programs and experiments,
- Reactor analyzes and analyzes of the spent fuel pool,
- Cooling of core cuts,
- Cleaning fission products and special themes,
- Application and evaluation of the MELCOR program.
During the CSARP and MCAP meeting, a workshop was held on 5 June for MELCOR users.
Meetings and workshops were attended by dr. Matjaž Leskovar from the Jožef Stefan Institute for Reactor Engineering, Slovenian co-ordinator for cooperation within the CSARP research program. He had a presentation entitled M. Leskovar, M. Uršič "Comparative Analysis of Severe Accident and Krško NPP with MELCOR 2.2 & 1.8.6".