Nuclear Safety

Nuclear Safety Basics

Primary goal of nuclear safety is to protect people and environment from harmful effects of radiation. In a nuclear power plant safety objective is met when the basic safety functions and features are covered:

• reactivity control (speed of the chain reaction in fuel);
• heat transfer from fuel;
• containment of radioactive material.

Just like current nuclear power plant in Krško all considered PWR power plants have same radioactive materials containment barriers integrated:

• fuel;
• primary cooling system;
• containment building.

Design is such that emissions during normal operation are far below acceptable limits and therefore pose no risk to the environment and population. What is more, even in the cases where there are deviations from normal operations or even failures which lead to accidental states, it should be ensured that the safety barriers remain intact or as little damaged as possible and that doses of radiation near the power plant are low and under the prescribed limits.

Radioactivity Containment
Barriers

Response of a reinforced concrete building to a strong explosion

How Do We Complement Nuclear Safety?

Nuclear safety is one of the key topics in research and the operation of our department. Most of the projects carried out in our department have nuclear safety as a centre piece. What is more, any project related to nuclear energy in one way or another comes across nuclear safety.

Operation of the Reactor Engineering - R4 in the field of nuclear safety:

• Public information and awareness (creation and maintenance of nuclear safety culture in Slovenia);
• Cooperation with industry in the form of consulting and expertise;
• Cooperation with the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration (SNSA);
• Research conducted for industrial projects;
• Continuous active search for improvements in field of nuclear safety.