To enable it to carry out relevant expert assessments, IRSN develops its own research programmes, with priority given to national and international collaboration through creating partnerships and mixed research units. The Institute also participates in numerous international research programmes.
For IRSN, this means anticipating future questions on changes and control of risks from nuclear activities and developing new research themes on accidents and crisis management where IRSN supports the public authorities.
A few current research programmes are detailed in the page below.
Safety in nuclear facilities
The actors of the international CABRI study the reactivity incidents to ensure the extraction of a maximum of energy from the fuel by extending the residence time in reactors.
This experimental programme aims to validate criticality calculation codes for structural materials.
SERENA - Steam Explosion REsolution for Nuclear Applications – is an international experimental project coordinated by the OECD to which the IRSN in partnership with the CEA.
The aim of the programme SOURCE TERM is to reduce uncertainties concerning the assessment of the release of radioactive products into the environment following a core meltdown accident in a water reactor. Other programmes included: EPICUR, MOZART, CHIP, BECARRE.
It aims to study of the effect of wind on accidental contaminating releases from a nuclear power plant. The Tivano programme (from the French acronym meaning "Transfers Induced by Wind in Accident and Nominal Operating Conditions) aims particularly at qualifying the CFX calculation codes and the Sylvia software programs to better integrate the effects of wind in the release calculations.
Radiation protection for human health and environment
Launched in 2011, this project objects to develop a diamond dosimeter to measure the dose delivered in the minibeams used in stereotactic radiotherapy.
Extending from 2008 to 2012, the main objective of the DISVER Programme (vertical dispersion) is to validate, by means of sea campaigns, MARS model computations. Jointly developed by Ifremer and IRSN, this three-dimensional hydrodynamic model simulates the dispersion of pollutants soluble in sea water.
Launched in 2001, ENVIRHOM is aimed at bringing together human health and environmental specialists to observe the effects of very low-level chronic exposure to radionuclides. The program studies radionuclide bioaccumulation phenomena in ecosystems and humans.
The EXTREME Project, launched in 2005, studies transfers of materials (mainly artificial radioactivity inventory) during sudden and extreme weather and climate events. The EXTREME project draws on the results of two other projects: the CARMA Project (hydro-sedimentary study of the Rhone river region) and the EXTREMA Project (which extends the scope of Extreme to include metal contaminants in the Mediterranean coastal area).
The aim of the Freebird (Fukushima Radiation Exposure and Effects in BIRD populations) project, launched in 2011, is to study the effects of ionising radiation in birds in the contaminated zone situated 100 km around Fukushima.
Launched by IRSN in July 2009, the ROSIRIS programme aims to better understand the mechanisms giving rise to secondary effects in radiotherapy.
Launched in February 2011, the Strategy for Allied Radioecology (STAR) network of excellence, coordinated by IRSN, groups together nine European partners. The objective is to pool the knowledge, infrastructures and research efforts of the different partners involved in order to create a genuine "European research area in radioecology”.
The new cell therapy in experimental radiopathology program, launched in 2009 for a five-year duration, is continuing the research conducted in this field by the IRSN for several years. The aim of this new period is to define the optimum conditions of clinical use of adult stem cells in the context of the treatment of severe tissue lesions following radiotherapy or accidental exposure to ionizing radiation.