Title: Radioactive release from VVER-1000 reactors after a terror attack

Authors: Gert Sdouz

Addresses: ARC Seibersdorf Research, Health Physics Division, A-2444 Seibersdorf, Austria

Abstract: One of the terror scenarios for nuclear power plants is a severe damage of the reactor containment caused by a plane crash or a missile. Owing to the loss of electric power the cooling of the core would not be maintained, leading to a core melt accident. Normally in the course of severe accidents an intact containment has the ability to retain a large part of the radioactive inventory. The goal of this work is the investigation of the behaviour of the radioactive releases from a VVER-1000 reactor during a severe accident with a large containment leak from the beginning of the accident. The results are compared with the release in a severe accident via a very small leakage due to the looseness of the containment.

Keywords: accident management; leakage; nuclear reactors; radioactive releases; source term; VVER-1000 reactors; core melt; nuclear power plants; nuclear energy; nuclear safety; nuclear security; radioactive release; nuclear accidents.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNGEE.2007.014676

International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology, 2007 Vol.1 No.3, pp.305 - 311

Published online: 24 Jul 2007 *

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