View looking down onto the LOFT reactor
The Loss-of-fluid Test (LOFT) Research Programme was originally set up by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Part of the programme was later broadened into an international collaboration project under the aegis of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). This initial programme addressed several configurations of loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) with large break tests and intermediate break tests carried out between 1978 and 1982.
The new programme, subject of the NEA's LOFT Project, was designed to use the LOFT experimental nuclear test facility at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), United States in a programme of safety experiments. The initial proposal was developed from an initiative of the United States Department of Energy (US DOE), that also provided continuing management support. The project successfully combined the abilities and objectives of an international team with those of the reactor operation and analysis staff at INEL to provide a significant addition to both the international database of large-scale experimental data on reactor safety and to the analysis and understanding of the test results.
The experimental program of the LOFT Project comprised eight experiments, six thermal-hydraulic experiments and two fission product release experiments:
In summary, the project achieved the following:
A report was issued in 1990 and can be found below.
Project data and reports are available to NEA member countries organisations upon request at LOFT data packages.
Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
January 1983-December 1989
~ USD 100 million