Nuclear Energy Agency Online Bulletin

October 2000

Covers new material for September 2000

The monthly bulletin only lists new and updated material. It is distributed by e-mail to registered users of the Nuclear Energy Agency's online services and is available online at www.oecd-nea.org/general/mnb/. The bulletin is sent monthly by e-mail to subscribers. If you are not already a subscriber, use the registration form to subscribe.

The October bulletin covers the following items:


New publications

Nuclear Legislation: Analytical Study – Regulatory and Institutional Framework for Nuclear Activities
ISBN 92-64-17676-4. Online.

Législations nucléaires : étude analytique – Réglementation générale et cadre institutionnel des activités nucléaires
ISBN 92-64-27676-9.
En ligne.

Free publications are available at www.oecd-nea.org/pub/.

Nuclear Education and Training: Cause for Concern – A Summary Report
38 pages (407 Ko).

Enseignement et formation dans le domaine nucléaire : faut-il s'inquièter ? Rapport de synthèse
46 pages (226 Ko).

A Critical Review of the System of Radiation Protection
62 pages (89 Ko).

Analyse critique du système de protection radiologique
68 pages (121 Ko).




Nuclear safety

Regular features


Nuclear safety news

A new State-of-the-Art Report (SOAR) on Flame Acceleration and Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition [NEA/CSNI/R(2000)7] has been released by the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI). It includes information from very significant, new experimental and theoretical projects that have been run in the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, the Russian Federation, and under the auspices of the European Commission. more

The first meeting of the MASCA Project Programme Review Group (PRG) was held on 28 September. The PRG recommended carrying out the Project according to the work programme presented by the Operating Agent, with some modifications. The project will address remaining issues on in-vessel core melt behaviour, in particular as related to possible stratification of the melt. Stratification can not only impact in-vessel retention, but also the lower head failure mode. Seventeen countries have confirmed their participation in the Project.

A technical level meeting on the MACE proposal was held on 29 September. During the meeting, a representative from Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), USA presented the programme, which would examine tests on ex-vessel phenomena and in particular on long-term interaction between the melt and the containment concrete and on the coolability of the melt by water flooding. Participants agreed on the technical content and interest of the proposal. A draft Agreement on an OECD MACE Project inviting NEA Member country participation should be sent out shortly, with the aim of starting the project in the beginning of 2001.


Radioactive waste management

The NEA has launched a new co-operative programme - the Sorption Project, Phase II - with the objective of demonstrating the applicability of chemical thermodynamic models to support the selection of sorption parameters used in safety assessments of radioactive waste repositories... more



Nuclear science

The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Programme, a project of the Nuclear Science Committee's Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety, has just published the new version of the CD-ROM containing the International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments (visit the official site at www.oecd-nea.org/science/wpncs/icsbep/). This new edition contains 284 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 2352 critical or near-critical configurations. This CD-ROM can be obtained free of charge by filling out the form located here.

A new report entitled "OECD/NEA Burnup Credit Criticality Benchmarks Phase IIIA: Criticality Calculations of BWR Spent Fuel Assemblies in Storage and Transport" by H. Okuno, Y. Naito and Y. Ando [JAERI-Research Report 2000-041, NEA/NSC/DOC(2000), 12 September 2000] is available free of charge upon request from ali.nouri@oecd-nea.org.

The NEA Nuclear Science Committee organised, together with the European Commission (EC) and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the "2nd Euroconference and NEA Workshop on Speciation, Techniques, and Facilities for Radioactive Materials at Synchrotron Light Sources" in Grenoble, France on 10-12 September. For more information see: http://www.esrf.fr/conferences/actinide/index.html.

The Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety and some of its Expert Groups met at NEA headquarters on 13-15 September. The structure of the Working Party and its list of publications can be viewed at www.oecd-nea.org/science/wpncs/.


Data Bank

Dates and topics of forthcoming training courses can be found at www.oecd-nea.org/dbcps/training-courses/.

Computer program services

A page giving the list of all new programs in the last 12 months can be found at www.oecd-nea.org/tools/abstract/new.

New software packages available from the Data Bank

04-OCT-2000 NEA-0829 SCAT-2,X-SEC & ANGL_DISTR CALC FOR SPH NUCLEI BY OPTICAL_MODEL (Arrived)
02-OCT-2000 CCC-0700 MCNP-4C, Coupled N Gamma 3-D time-Dependent Monte Carlo Transport Calc. (Arrived)
02-OCT-2000 DLC-0200 ZZ MCNPDATA,Standard N, Photon & Electron data libraries for MCNP-4C (Arrived)
02-OCT-2000 NEA-1614 COBRA-EN, Thermal-Hydraulic Transient Analysis of Reactor Cores (Arrived)
18-SEP-2000 IAEA1377 HYDMN, Thermal Hydraulics of Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (Arrived)
12-SEP-2000 NEA-1553 SINBAD-FUSION NEUTRONICS BENCHMARK EXPERIMENTS  (Tested)
12-SEP-2000 NEA-1552 SINBAD-ACCELERATOR SHIELDING BENCHMARK EXPERIMENTS  (Tested)
11-SEP-2000 NEA-1517 SINBAD-REACTOR SHIELDING BENCHMARK EXPERIMENTS (Arrived)

Instructions on retrieving material from the NEA may be found at www.oecd-nea.org/. Please note that scientific database access is only available to residents of OECD/NEA Data Bank member countries.


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