NEST Hydrogen containment experiments for reactor safety (HYMERES)
Ongoing

The NEST HYMERES (Hydrogen containment experiments for reactor safety) project, led by Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, addresses safety relevant phenomena in containments during accidents. It offers hands-on training opportunites during the experimental test campaigns carried out at the PSI PANDA facility, one of the most advanced containment test facilities worldwide. In parallel, it also aims at developing exploratory research projects under the guidance of experts at participating organisations, in particular within the universities.

 

Background

The NEA HYMERES-2 project is a major international project contributing to the extension of the experimental database on containment phenomena and on suppression pool issues.

The overall project scope is:

  • to improve the physical understanding of hydrogen release, transport and mixing in nuclear reactor containments;
  • to study suppression pool systems issues, with the goal to enhance modeling capabilities in support of safety assessments for current and new nuclear power plants;
  • to create a suitable experimental database for the validation of advanced computational tools.

The PANDA series form four main categories or areas:

  • Separate effects/ flow obstructions
  • Safety components/systems
  • Suppression pool phenomenology
  • System/multi-compartment

The NEA joint projects such as HYMERES-2 benefit from a broad range of technical and scientific expertise in an international framework and are based on experimental and computational activities which have a potential to serve also as driving force for educational activities.

The NEST HYMERES project has been created as the educational component of the NEA HYMERES-2 joint project.

Objectives

Within the NEST HYMERES project experimental and computational research activities have been carried out by NEST Fellows. The objectives of the NEST Fellow activities are:

  • to contribute with computational analyses to the definition of PANDA tests and to identify the optimal configurations to reach the objectives of the individual series;
  • to gain insight into the computational modeling needs to represent containment phenomena in compartments or structures;
  • to develop methodologies for processing the experimental data which could enhance the understanding of phenomena during specific tests;
  • to perform complementary experiments in small and medium scale facility which could provide a broader understanding of the phenomena investigated in the HYMERES-2 project.

Moreover, the NEST Fellows have the possibility to present the results of their activities in the HYMERES-2 project meetings and in seminars organised at PSI.

Leading organisation

  • Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland

Participating organisations

  • University of Calgary, Canada
  • CNRS Orléans, France
  • IRSN, France
  • FZ Jülich, Germany
  • Kyung Hee University of Yongin, Korea 
  • Seoul National University, Korea
  • Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Switzerland
  • Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain (non-NEST member)
  • Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden (non-NEST member)
  • Oregon State University, United States
  • Texas A&M University, Unites States

Fellows

2019

  • Kevin Manohar, University of Calgary, Canada
  • Carlos Vazques-Rodriguez, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain 
  • Dmitry Grishchenko, KTH, Sweden 
  • Lea Zimmerman, ETH, Switzerland
  • Stephen King, Texas A&M, United States

2020 

  • Liam Cammiade, Aachen University, Germany
  • Brent Hollrah, Texas A&M, United States
  • Danielle South, Texas A&M, United States
  • Denise Chavez, Texas A&M, United States
  • Michael Gorman, Texas A&M, United States

2021 

  • Ethan Robert Kirkby, University of Calgary, Canada
  • Myeong Seon Chae, Kyung Hee University of Yongin, Korea 
  • Carlos Vazques-Rodriguez, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain 

2022 

  • Maegan Britney Vocke, University of Calgary, Canada 
  • Sharath Nagaraju,  CRNS, France 
  • Myeong Seon Chae, Kyung Hee University of Yongin, Korea 
  • Sofia Arfinego del Carpio, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
  • Stephen King, Texas A&M, United States

The short presentation of the NEST Fellows can be found here.