Chemical considerations in severe accident analysis

The Reactor Safety Study presented the first systematic attempt to include fission product physicochemical effects in the determination of expected consequences of hypothetical nuclear reactor power plant accidents. At the time, however, the data base was sparse, and the treatment of fission product behavior was not entirely consistent or accurate. Considerable research has since been performed to identify and understand chemical phenomena that can occur in the course of a nuclear reactor accident, and how these phenomena affect fission product behavior. This report is an attempt to summarize the current status of their understanding of the chemistry of fission products in nuclear reactor accidents, and to identify those areas where chemical issues remain unresolved