Thermal-hydraulics aspects of key nuclear accidents - Chapter 16

Accidents in Nuclear Power Plants have the potential for tremendous impact on the population and the environment. This has been specifically true for those events which evolved into severe accidents, noticeably Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, i.e., the key topic for the present chapter. These accidents deserved and received deep attention from the scientific and technological community: in each case thousands of documents have been published. Nuclear thermal-hydraulics has been used for understanding the accident progressions and, specifically in the case of Three Mile Island, attained indications for new research activities and developments. Owing to this motivation the “stability” events occurred in La Salle and Oskarshamn are also part of this chapter; however, stability events have little or no safety implications and no radiological consequences.