Scaling rationale in reactor safety research

The requirement of a sound and valid scaling rationale is necessary for application of the scaled experimental results to a real industrial plant. It is particularly important in reactor safety research, because the results of simulated severe accident tests are not expected to be checked in an actual reactor and thus the wrongly scaled experimental data could mislead the reactor designer or operator to an unsafe condition. Research results are now being applied to safety analysis. The work scaling is used here in a very broad sense. This paper is to review the existing scaling rationale (or simulation criteria) of research in the field of thermal-hydraulics, structure, and metallurgy; and to call researchers' attention to the scaling rationale in future reactor safety research efforts