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Consequence-based security for microreactors

  • Received : 2023.06.16
  • Accepted : 2024.01.30
  • Published : 2024.03.25

Abstract

Assuring physical security for Micro Modular Reactors (MMRs) will be key to their licensing. Economic constraints however require changes in how the security objectives are achieved for MMRs. A promising new approach is the so-called performance based (PB) approach wherein the regulator formally sets general security objectives and leaves it to the licensee to set their own specific acceptance criteria to meet those objectives. To implement the PB approach for MMRs, one performs a consequence-based analysis (CBA) whose objective is to study hypothetical malicious attacks on the facility, assuming that intruders take control of the facility and perform any technically possible action within a limited time before an offsite security force can respond. The scenario leading to the most severe radiological consequences is selected and studied to estimate the limiting impact on public health. The CBA estimates the total amount of radionuclides that would be released to the atmosphere in this hypothetical scenario to determine the total radiation dose to which the public would be exposed. The predicted radiation exposure dose is then compared to the regulatory dose limit for the site. This paper describes application of the CBA to four different MMRs technologies.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Dr. Edward Lau and Professor Koroush Shirvan for their help and time in conducting this research. The authors wish to thank Dr. David Petti for his availability and great help during this project. The first author would also like to thank the whole physical security project team and his colleagues for their warm welcome during his internship. Finally, the first author thanks the Sustainable Energy Chair of Ecole Polytechnique for its financial aid.

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