Severe Accidents and New Reactors. Twenty Years of Research

A review was done on the main activities performed by the Programme for Nuclear Safety of CIEMAT in the field of nuclear reactor safety from 1985 to 2005. It covers the areas of severe accident and source term, advanced and passive reactors, containments analyses and plant applications. It is emphasized CIEMATs participation in national and international projects mainly in those supported by CSN, OECD and the EU. At the same time, experimental and analytical capabilities set up at CIEMAT, as PECA, RECA and GIRS for simulating aerosol pool scrubbing phenomena, hydrogen catalytic recombiner and sprays are been presented, together with an Annex on Generation IV. Two chapters were added, one on the nuclear power reactors in the world and another about the safety systems and principles. (Author)