[en] The location of a site safe and able to sequester CO2 for long periods of time is essential to gain public acceptance. This requires a long-term safety assessment developed in a robust and reliable framework. Site selection is the first step and requires specific research. This paper describes the application of the Selection and Classification Method of Geological Formations (SCF) developed to assess the potential of geological formations to CO2 storage. This assessment is based in the analysis of risks to Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) derived from potential CO2 leakage. Comparisons of the results obtained from a number of potential sites can help to select the best candidate for CO2 injection. The potential impact will be related to three key potential features of CO2 geological storage: the potential of the target geological formation for long term CO2 containment; the potential for secondary containment on containment failure of the target formation; and the site's potential to mitigate and/or disperse CO2 leakage if the primary and secondary containments fail. The methodology assesses each of these three characteristics through an analysis and assessment of properties of certain attributes of them. Uncertainty will remain as an input and output value of the methodology due to the usual lack of data in most site selection processes. The global uncertainty reports on the trust on the knowledge of the site characteristics. Therefore, the methodology enables comparing sites taking into account both the HSE risk expectation and the estimation of the quality of knowledge concerning such risk. The objective is to contribute to the selection of potential sites for a CO2 injection pilot plant in the Iberian Peninsula from the perspective of Safety and Risk Analysis.

[en] The storage of CO2 in geological formations is a promising option in the set of technological strategies to reduce the concentration of atmospheric CO2. An essential requirement for the definition and planning of CO2 injection strategies at local, national and supranational scales and to gaining public acceptance that allows the application of this technology to an industrial scale is building safe geological storages capable of sequestering CO2 during extended periods with minimal risk of leakage, i.e., annual leakage rates of CO2 less than 0.01% of the total volume stored, equivalent to a retention period 10 000 years. This report sets out the performance indicators and environmental and safety criteria to be satisfied in the long-term risk analysis and assessment of the Technological Development Plant for CO2 Geological Storage at the Hontomín site (Burgos, Spain).

[en] Agricultural land use pattern is affected by many factors at different scales and effects that are separated by time and space. This will lead to simulation models that optimize or project the cropping pattern changes and incorporate complexities in terms of details and dynamics. Combining System Dynamics (SD) and a modified Conversion of Land Use and its Effects (CLUE) modelling framework, this paper suggests a new dynamic approach for assessing the demand of different crops at country-level and for predicting the spatial distribution of cultivated areas at provincial scale. As example, a case study is presented for Iran, where we have simulated a scenario of future cropping pattern changes during 2015–2040.The results indicated a change in the spatial distribution of cultivated areas during the next years. An increase in the proportion of rice is expected in northern Iran, whereas the proportion of wheat is increasing in the mountainous western areas. Wheat and barley crops are expected to become dominant within the cropping system throughout the country regions.

[en] A WBS (work breakdown structure) in connection with the dismantling of nuclear facilities was established using the PBS (physical breakdown structure) and ABS (activity breakdown structure). A matrix used to evaluate the decommissioning cost for the dismantling procedure was designed. As a result of the verification of the designed matrix, it was confirmed that the legal regulations, the physical characterization of the structure, and the technical criteria of the dismantling can be inquired accurately when dismantling an activated structure. The foundation of the dismantling WBS is secured through the combination of the nuclear facility classification system and the dismantlement activity classification system. Using the matrix function, an environment that can inquire regarding the relationship and properties between the nuclear facility classification system (PBS) and the disassembly activity (ABS) was implemented. As a result of verifying the designed matrix according to the selected scenario, it is possible to intuitively obtain various types of information such as the safety requirements for the operators’ safety and the regulatory requirements of containers when waste generated after cutting the activated structure in the reactor is charged to the vessel.

[en] The demand of vegetable protein for animal feed and the need to diversify the crop rotation in rainfed Mediterranean climates has led to study the viability as new forage crop of the Vicia narbonensis-Avena strigosa mixture. Therefore, a 3-year field trial was conducted at two different and representative locations of the area to evaluate the capacity of both species to form a balanced mixture and to define its potential for high yield and forage quality. Different seeding ratios (65:35, 50:50 and 35:65) were compared with their pure stands and the standard mixture Avena sativa-Vicia sativa (65:35). Forage mixtures establishment and growth varied according to the environmental conditions with a negative influence of a dry year 1 for legumes (<300 mm) and a wet year 2 for oats (>630 mm). However, competition ratio indicated that there were not significant differences between mixed treatments, displaying intermediate ground coverage values, dry matter yield and crude protein regarding pure stands. Higher dry matter yield than control mixture in addition to similar crude protein, acid-detergent fibre, neutral-detergent fibre and digestible dry matter values, were produced at 35:65 in dry years and 65:35 and 50:50 in rainy years with loamy and clay soils, respectively. The appropriate development of both species in the mixture at different soil and rainfall conditions, as well as a good yield often higher than control mixture and a great forage quality, confirm to the narbon bean-black oat mixture as a viable and profitable crop alternative in rainfed cropping systems under Mediterranean conditions.

[en] In the past, there have been attempts and studies on eliminating soluble boric acid in small modular reactors (SMRs). Soluble boron-free concepts can eliminate boric-acid-induced corrosion and simplify the large components related to Chemical and Volume Control System (CVCS). This paper attempts to understand jamming phenomena and quantify its probability in terms of various physical variables based on experiment and simulation. In this paper, we have performed analysis on the jamming phenomenon of the granular system of monodisperse balls in 3D hoppers to validate the ball-type SSS for soluble boron free small modular reactor. We showed that DEM can be effective in interpreting this SSS through comparison with previous well-known experimental results. Moreover, we compared with our own experiment results to verify the DEM simulation results. As further works, the following tasks are on-going and will be performed. (1) We are undergoing a theoretical interpretation to understand the Jamming phenomenon. (2) We will perform a comparison of the experiment and the simulation under more various conditions through more experiments.

[en] No two days are the same when on the job as a decommissioning manager. Nuclear facilities come in all shapes and sizes, and with each facility having its own unique design, decommissioners have to develop highly detailed and tailored plans and often create new, innovative solutions for safely dismantling a facility piece by piece.

[en] This was the keynote address at the ANA2015 conference. It gave an insight into the Westinghouse experience into designing, licensing and building advanced reactors. A po

[en] Under the U.S. DOE NEAMS program, the high-fidelity neutronics code system has been developed to support the multiphysics modeling and simulation capability named SHARP. The neutronics code system includes the high-fidelity neutronics code PROTEUS, the cross section library and preprocessing tools, the multigroup cross section generation code MC2-3, the in-house meshing generation tool, the perturbation and sensitivity analysis code PERSENT, and post-processing tools. The main objectives of the NEAMS neutronics activities in FY17 are to continue development of an advanced nodal solver in PROTEUS for use in nuclear reactor design and analysis projects, implement a simplified sub-channel based thermal-hydraulic (T/H) capability into PROTEUS to efficiently compute the thermal feedback, improve the performance of PROTEUS-MOCEX using numerical acceleration and code optimization, improve the cross section generation tools including MC2-3, and continue to perform verification and validation tests for PROTEUS.

[en] No two days are the same when on the job as a decommissioning manager. Nuclear facilities come in all shapes and sizes, and with each facility having its own unique design, decommissioners have to develop highly detailed and tailored plans and often create new, innovative solutions for safely dismantling a facility piece by piece.