Nuclear reactor containment safety assessment by using the global safety factor

Nuclear reactor containments are frequently made of prestressed reinforced concrete. Their service state limits and accident scenarios are conveniently examined by nonlinear analysis based on finite element method. Effective application of nonlinear analysis for the design and assessment of structures requires application of a global safety format. Such approaches are available in Eurocodes or in the new fib model code. The authors developed a number of methods for such purposes within ATENA software. Nonlinear analysis can be applied to the analysis of the behaviour of both structural details and the whole containment. Application to the safety assessment of nuclear containments is highlighted on practical examples. Simulation of the service states as well as accident scenarios were performed for a containment in Finland. The cause of the containment wall delamination was investigated for the Crystal River power plant in Florida. An interesting experiment is currently running at BARC laboratories in India, involving a large scale experiment of 1:4 containment model