EventThe AMORAD project: register for the scientific matinee organized by the IRSN
2017/10/30
The
IRSN is organizing a scientific matinee devoted to the AMORAD project
on Thursday, November 23rd, from 9:00 to 13:00 in Fontenay-aux-Roses.
Registration for this matinee is free and it is open to everyone.
The
ANR AMORAD project, launched in November 2013 for six years under the
direction of the IRSN, aims to improve simulation models for the
dispersion and transfer of radionuclides in the environment. It is,
thus, a question of reducing the uncertainties around the assessment of
radiological consequences on humans and the environment in the event of a
major nuclear accident such as those which occurred in Chernobyl and
Fukushima. Two parts of the biosphere are involved, along with their
interfaces: one is the marine environment, and the other is the
terrestrial ecosystems and their associated surface waters.
The
matinee will largely consist of a discussion of the main progress
achieved by the 13 partners who make up the consortium, with two years
left until the end of the project. The aim is to deliver recommendations
and tools for an integrated approach to assessing the radiological
consequences of a nuclear accident in order to take the best decisions.
To find out more about AMORAD project
Matinee program (PDF in French)
To register : Jacqueline Garnier-Laplace
EventThe IRSN is co-organising a workshop on masonry techniques in the face of earthquakes
2017/10/20
The
École Normale Supérieure (ENS), the IRSN and the French Association of
Earthquake Engineering (AFPS) are organizing an international workshop
on "Masonry techniques in the face of earthquakes, from Antiquity to the
present: prospects for multidisciplinary studies".
Studying
the characteristics of heritage buildings in earthquake situations is
crucial, both for a better understanding of "past seismicity" and for
improving architectural conservation techniques. The behaviour of
masonries, which constitute one of the most traditional building
techniques since Antiquity, is complex and still largely unknown and
deserves more detailed research.
The
workshop aims to bring together specialists from several disciplines
connected with the study of earthquakes and/or buildings
(archaeologists, seismologists, structural engineers and architects) so
they can pool their methodological approaches to research. One of the
day's objectives will be to explore new perspectives for the study and
conservation of masonry buildings.
This
workshop will be largely informed by the reflections carried out as
part of the ANR RECAP project (Rebuilding after an earthquake: ancient
experiences and innovations in Pompeii) initiated in January 2015 for
four years by ENS, INRIA (French National Institute for Research in
Computer Science and Control), IPGP (Paris Institute of Earth Physics)
and CJB (Centre Jean Bérard).
The
IRSN is involved in the organisation of this workshop because of its
research activity and expertise in seismology and the seismic behaviour
of structures. The workshop is part of an exchange which the Institute
began some years ago with the ENS and the AFPS around the theme of
earthquake damage to buildings. This exchange is also reflected in a
thesis starting this autumn and led by Arnaud Montabert on the
"Classification of 2D and 3D seismic movements vis-à-vis different
building types". It is co-supervised by the IRSN (Seismic Risk
Assessment Section - BERSSIN) and the ENS.
Registration: http://www.geologie.ens.fr/workshop
Full programme
To find out more about BERSSIN
Publications
Updating the knowledge on tritium in the environment
2017/10/16
The
IRSN is publishing a review of knowledge accumulated since 2010 on the
behaviour of tritium in the environment. It summarises the main advances
in research, obtained by the IRSN and teams of international
researchers, at a stage that clarifies questions around the metrology of
tritium, its physicochemical forms, levels measured in environments
such as air, water, soils and sediments, bioaccumulation and transfer in
the food chain.
This
report takes stock of the studies carried out on the behaviour of
tritium in the environment following a white paper published by the
Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) in 2010, which included recommendations
on the lines of research to be developed, particularly those relating to
the impact of tritium. This document brought together the work of two
pluralistic think tanks created by the ASN to synthesise existing
knowledge on tritium. This work followed two reports from UK
environmental and health agencies reporting high concentrations of
organically bound tritium in some marine species in Cardiff Bay and
Sellafield, giving rise to questions about the behaviour of tritium in
the environment, its potential for bioaccumulation by living organisms
and the methods of evaluating the biological effects of tritium in
humans.
The
IRSN is also continuing its work on the impact of tritium exposure on
health. It is collaborating closely with the Canadian Nuclear
Laboratories (CNL), which have suitable test platforms. One point of the
acquired results set integrating the advances of the scientific
community in this field will be made once the work undertaken has
reached a sufficient level of maturity.
Read the IRSN report (in French)
Reports
of the UK agencies: RIFE (Radioactivity in Food and the Environment) Report 11,
2005; Report of the AGIR Group of the Health Protection Agency (HPA), 2007.
Publications
The 14th issue of Aktis, IRSN’s scientific newsletter, is available
2017/10/05

The fourteenth English-language issue of Aktis, the quarterly
newsletter on IRSN’s research, is available on a HTML and PDF package.
Aktis is published only in a digital version and available in HTML or
text format for e-mail, RSS and
a pageflip PDF.
In this issue, focus on improving the understanding of hydriding
of cladding to anticipate rupture. Aktis n°14 also treats of quantifying
uncertainties for better assessing consequences after a nuclear
accident. As well, it deals with the evaluation of secondary neutron
doses in proton therapy.
The subscription for the English and French versions is complimentary. To read this issue or subscribe, go to
www.irsn.fr/aktis-EN.
Conference
Nuclear accident and human and social sciences: First conference for the AGORAS project
2017/10/02
How
is an institutional balance established and how does it change between
the various players involved in preventing nuclear accidents and in
managing one should it occur? The AGORAS project sets outs to answer
this very question, and the first conference will be organized by the
IRSN for Tuesday, November 21, 2017 at Cité Universitaire in Paris.
The
conference, organized by the IRSN, will bring together the program's
partners to discuss the research that has been carried out. Questions
regarding governance, crisis management and post-accident management
will be addressed by around 20 different presenters throughout the day.
The purpose is also to foster discussion on the knowledge generated by
the project and to help the various communities involved and interested
in these topics assimilate that knowledge. IRSN Director General
Jean-Christophe Niel will kick off the conference.
The
AGORAS project (Improving the Governance of Organisations and Networks
of Actors for Nuclear Safety) was launched in 2014 for a five-year
period, following Complementary Safety Assessments (CSAs) conducted on
French nuclear installations after the Fukushima accident. These
assessments underscore the importance of having a solid scientific
understanding of the relationships between nuclear safety institutions
and organizations in order to improve prevention and preparations for
crisis management and post-accident management. AGORAS was one of 14
projects selected by the ANR from the call for research projects,
launched after the Fukushima accident, in the fields of nuclear safety
and radiation protection.
The
project involves academic, industrial and institutional partners,
including the IRSN, which runs two workpackages of the AGORAS program.
The first one deals with decisions made during the design phase of
nuclear installations with regard to severe accidents and natural
hazards—decisions which, in light of the Fukushima accident, proved to
be unacceptable. The second one looks at how an accident—and
particularly Fukushima—changes the ways in which knowledge is acquired
and mobilized in the technical dialog between operators and safety
experts.
Sign up to attend the conference (in French)
Programme
AGORAS project website
Award
Doctoral student at the IRSN receives Best Paper Award at ICONE 25
2017/09/27

Salima
Kaissoun, a doctoral student at the Research and Modeling Laboratory
for Airborne Dispersion and Containment (LEMAC) at the IRSN received a
Best Paper Award during the ICONE 25 conference (International
Conference on Nuclear Engineering) held in Shanghai from July 2-6, 2017.
The
paper, "Experimental and numerical study of airflow dynamics through an
opening in a depressurized enclosure: application to nuclear
decommissioning", was one of five that received awards from a student
contest with over 100 papers selected. Her work aims to describe airflow
and the amount of radioactive pollutants that can escape during
maintenance operations and dismantling through an opening in the
containment of a nuclear installation. This paper includes both digital
simulations and experimental studies on models.
Taking
place once a year, ICONE is the main conference on nuclear reactor
technology. The conference is co-sponsored by the Chinese Nuclear
Society (CNS), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and
the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME). This year over 1,300
participants attended from all over the world.
Photo: presentation of the Best Paper Awards (Salima Kaissoun is second from the right). © IRSN
Event
ICRER 2017 launch
2017/09/01
The 4th International
Conference on Radioecology and Environmental Radioactivity (ICRER)
starts this Sunday 3 September and runs to 8 September in Berlin
(Germany). ICRER is an international conference devoted to radioecology,
which will host around 300 scientists from all over the world this
year. It is jointly organised by the IRSN and the NRPA every three
years. This year it is being supported by the European radiation
protection platforms
ALLIANCE,
MELODI,
NERIS,
IAEA,
IUR and
BfS, which chairing the local organising committee.
The
scientific programme includes a selection of oral presentations and
posters on nine different themes (see list on the conference
website).The conference brings together scientists, industrial players,
regulators and experts. Three internationally renowned speakers, Prof
Brenda Howard (UK), Dr Ken Buesseler (USA) and Prof Gilles Bœuf (France)
will open the conference.
Throughout
the week, participants will discuss the latest scientific advances in
radioecology and associated disciplines. In this way, the conference
will contribute to improving the knowledge, methods and tools required
to make advances to protect people and the environment from the effects
of radiation.
ICRER 2017 websiteAward
An ex-IRSN PhD student awarded the CCR Cat Nat 2017 prize
2017/07/02

Elif
Oral won the CCR Cat Nat 2017 award for her thesis on
"Multi-dimensional modelling of seismic wave propagation in linear and
non-linear media”. Her thesis, defended in December 2016, was funded and
supported by the IRSN and IFSTTAR.
The
ex-IRSN PhD student (at BERSSIN – Seismic Risk Assessment Section)
received her prize during the 8th CCR Cat Day on the 8th June. Her work
was to improve prediction of seismic movements taking into account the
properties of superficial geological strata. This consisted of
numerically modelling seismic waves propagation in complex heterogeneous
geological strata that displayed linear and non-linear mechanical
behaviour.
Launched in 2015
by the reinsurer CCR, the CCR Cat Nat prize is awarded annually for a
PhD thesis that improves knowledge of natural disasters and application
of this to the insurance and risk prevention professions. It is open at
European level and the prize is awarded by a jury made up of university
professors, research and insurance experts and representative from CCR.
Watch the video of the prize award
To find out more about Elif Oral's thesis
To find out more about BERSSIN
To find out more about 2017 CCR Cat DayPhoto: Elif Oral -on the left- and Laurent Montador, CCR Deputy Chief Executive Officer
© IRSNAwardBest Poster Award for LNC researcher
2017/07/01
Alexis Jinaphanh, a researcher at the
IRSN’s Criticality Research and Neutronics Development Laboratory (LNC)
has received the Best Poster Award at ANS M&C 2017 (International
Conference on Mathematics & Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear
Science & Engineering) held in Jeju, South Korea.
The poster designed by Alexis
Jinaphanh presents a new way of calculating the sensitivity of nuclear
data, which has been implemented in IRSN’s MORET 5 code (a Monte Carlo
code for neutronics and criticality). The software simulates the
transport of neutrons in a three dimensional space. It is used to
evaluate the criticality risk of a nuclear installation, i.e. the
appearance of an uncontrolled chain reaction outside the core of a
reactor during operation (criticality accident).
The nuclear data comes from
measurements or mathematical models and is fed into the MORET code to
perform simulations. There is uncertainty in the data which has to be
quantified and its effect estimated on the neutron multiplication
coefficient. One of the possible methods of doing this is to calculate
the sensitivity coefficients which indicate the sensitivity of the
system to uncertainty in the input data. The final objective is to
assess the reliability of safety margins on the risk of criticality in a
nuclear installation.
After
having implemented a first reference method, Alexis Jinaphanh adapted a
computational method from a US Monte Carlo code (the CLUTCH approach) to
improve the performance of MORET.
To see the poster
To find out more about MORET code
To find out more about LNC