CSNI2038 HEAF.

HEAF (High Energy Arc Faults) project.

The HEAF Project was planned as a three-year programme to be conducted by USNRC at a facility in the United States. The project's aim was to conduct experiments in order to explore the basic configurations, failure modes and effects of high energy arc faults (HEAF) events. The equipment to be tested and considered primarily consists of switchgears and bussing components. Since the switchgears and other equipment necessary for testing is very expensive, the programme relied on signatories' in-kind contributions.

The project had two objectives, which was to

• draft an international, peer-reviewed guidance document (in the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission NUREG series) that could be readily used to assist the regulators of participants;

• draft a joint nuclear safety project report covering all testing and data captured.

A significant amount of full size equipment had been tested. The initial testing took place in June 2014 in the presence of project members followed by 3 further campaigns in November 2014, March 2015 and October 2015. Data including high-speed high-definition (HD) video had been captured by the USNRC team and was shared amongst other participants in February 2016. Partners then carried out their analyses of the data and contributed to the final report. The first draft of the final report was delivered in June 2016, which necessitated an extension to the project end date to December 2016.

Participants: Canada, Finland France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Spain and the United States.

Project period: July 2012 to December 2016

The distribution of this package is restricted and subject to prior approval.

For more detailed information visit http://www.oecd-nea.org/jointproj/heaf.html

The project was led by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) as the Operating Agent (OA) with support from the US Department of Commerce (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).