[en] The problems in finding solutions to the low-level waste disposal needs of this country are far from insurmountable. Technology is available to site and safely operate facilities in almost any environment, and the necessary regulatory framework is in place. Waste volume for disposal now is only half of what it was 10 years ago, when three operating sites were more than sufficient. And, despite the headlines in Illinois and elsewhere, real progress has been made over the last year. As has happened overseas in places where waste disposal concerns are just as strong as here in the United States, perseverance and a willingness to work with the public will eventually pay off

[en] The Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in 1986 has led to a reassessment of safety issues in the nuclear industry's of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and in central and eastern Europe. Three aspects of the problem are explained and addressed here, design inadequacies in the RBMK and other reactor types, less than adequate operational safety procedures and lack of independent government regulation of state utilities, allowing economic targets to overcome safe operation of plants. (UK)

[en] Considering that nuclear power will play an increasing role in the energy and economic development of Pacific Rim countries, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is prepared to expand its cooperation with counterpart organizations in Pacific Rim countries to help establish and nourish a safety culture able to respond to the dynamic process of nuclear energy development which will occur over the next few years

[en] For those plants in premature or extended shutdown, the NRC finds several strong reasons why the interim, on-site storage of spent fuel should often be shifted from the existing fuel pool to a dry storage system. These reasons include the continuing operational support activities needed to keep a fuel pool operating properly. Water chemistry and cleanliness, surveillance of rack and fuel conditions, and maintenance and surveillance of support systems are all activities that are second nature to an operating plant, but may not always receive adequate attention in a plant permanently shut down. Therefore, the NRC increasingly views dry storage as the preferred method of interim storage of mature spent fuels for plants in permanent shut-down, as well as for supplementary storage in many operating plants. The author discusses regulatory policies and practices concerning the interim storage of spent fuel and the increasing use of dry cask systems in this paper

[en] Since the Three Mile Island unit 2 reactor accident the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has increasingly emphasized the need to understand the variety of containment challenges that could occur as a result of a severe core damage accident. The focus of this effort has been on those containment challenges where the resultant pressure and temperature conditions could threaten the integrity of the containment building. Research is focused largely on understanding containment capabilities and the margins in performance that go beyond design loads and severe core damage threats in five specific areas: combinations of pressure and temperature that could lead to the failure of the containment pressure boundary, timing of containment failure in the accident sequence, failure mode, leak area and the associated leak rate, and the location of the failure. Considerable effort is being devoted to the containment issues of the next generation of advanced light water reactors whose designs have been or will be submitted to the NRC for certification

[en] The aim of the work is to ascertain a solar car battery performance. The student engineering team of Peter the Great Petersburg Polytechnic University designs the car. Parameters as terminal voltage, operating current, power losses and efficiency are determined depending on battery state of charge (SOC) and operating power. For electrochemical transient modelling, an equivalent RC-circuit is included based on Thevenin battery model. It is assumed in the model that internal resistance, open circuit voltage and the RC-circuit voltage drop depends only on the SOC. Experimental data was obtained from the LG INR18650 MJ1 battery discharge curves. Modelling was performed for SOC values in the range of 0.17 to 0.95 since the terminal voltage dependence on SOC is nearly linear there. The proposed model is sufficient for state of charge estimating and battery performance determination. (paper)