POLCA, The Pool during Loss of Cooling Accident
Ongoing
Joint project

Picture of the ASNR MIDI facility 

The Pool during Loss of Cooling Accident (POLCA) project was launched in April 2024 and is planned to last four years. It is operated by the French Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire et de Radioprotection (ASNR) and is supported by 11 organisations from 9 countries.

The POLCA project examines the behaviour of spent fuel pools (SFPs) during situations of loss of cooling through experiments performed at pool scale in the MIDI facility (189 heating elements simulating fuel assemblies in 3x7 cells in the pool) and in the ASPIC facility at assembly scale (17x17 electrically heated and instrumented fuel assembly). It addresses some of the knowledge gaps identified through a status report and a Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table (PIRT) on Loss-of-Cooling and Loss-of-Coolant Accidents in Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools conducted by CSNI/WGAMA. 

The objectives of the POLCA project are to:

  • enhance knowledge on loss of cooling accidents development in SFPs and provide thermal hydraulics data;
  • support the thermo-hydraulics model development and validation for SFP under loss of cooling accidents;
  • evaluate some mitigation strategies concerning assembly management.

Experimental activities will be completed by analytical activities with CFD code benchmarking and sensitivity analyses.

In 2024, preparatory activities for the testing and analytical activities were conducted.

Participants

Belgium, Canada, Czechia, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United States

Project period

April 2024 - March 2028

Budget

2.8 million €