Nuclear Power Plant Safety

Engineering countermeasures for radioactive material release

In order to prevent the release of radioactive material into the environment, nuclear power plants are designed to be resistant to a number of natural destructive forces, such as hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission [U.S. NRC], 2011a). Within the plant, critical systems are designed to limit and control radioactive material release should they fail. These design considerations include the following (U.S. NRC, 2011a):

fire prevention, detection, and suppression strategies and technologies redundancies, compartmentalization, and automation in critical instrumentation and controls independent protection systems and controls a control room designed so that it can be occupied safely during an accident

reactor power oscillation suppression and reactivity limit controls a closed loop coolant system that can exceed normal operational conditions and is amenable to regular inspections and testing during reactor operation reactor coolant leak detection system

an emergency core...
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