Safety consideration and economic advantage of a new underground nuclear power plant design

Abstract

A conceptual design of an underground nuclear power plant is proposed to make undergrounding of nuclear reactors not only environmentally desirable but also economically feasible. Expedient to the underground environment, this design capitalizes on the pressure-containing and radiation filtering characteristics of the new underground boundary conditions. Design emphasis is on the containment of a catastrophic accident — that of a reactor vessel rupture caused by external means. The H igh C apacity R apid E nergy D issipation U nderground C ontainment (HiC—REDUCE) system which efficiently contains loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs) and small break conditions is described. The end product is a radiation-release-proof plant which, in effect, divorces the safety of the public from the safety of the reactor.