To enable it to carry out relevant expert assessments, IRSN develops its own research programs, with priority given to national and international collaboration through creating partnerships and mixed research units. The Institute also participates in numerous international research programs.
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 programs are detailed in the page below.
Safety in nuclear facilities
Research programs on fuel behavior
One of the major safety objectives of nuclear facilities is thus to contain radioactivity in all circumstances. IRSN carries out R&D programs to understand the behavior of the first containment barrier in the various accident situations that could occur in a PWR.
Reactivity injection accident
CABRI international program (CIP)
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.
Loss-of-coolant Accident
The PERFROI experimental research project, launched in January 2014 for a six years long period, aims to better understand the cooling behavior of a nuclear reactor core in case of a loss of coolant accident (LOCA).
LOCA in spent fuel pools
The DENOPI project aims to acquire experimental data on the physical phenomena associated with a spent fuel pool loss-of-cooling and loss-of-coolant accidents.
Other research programs
Launched in 2017 for three years, the European
AEROMET project aims to
develop and demonstrate methods for traceability and calibration of different
aerosol instruments capable of covering the environmentally relevant size
range. The project also has the purpose to provide the
necessary EU wide calibration infrastructure for aerosol instruments. The
traceability and calibration will consider particle
size, number as mass concentration and chemistry of particle components.
ASSAS (Artificial intelligence for Simulation of Severe AccidentS) is a project will consist in a proof-of-concept of realistic industrial simulators targeting not only phenomenological training but also potentially accident management training, management guidelines assessment and emergency preparedness and response.
Launched by the IRSN in December 2015, the COSEA project should enable points for discussion to be proposed on the risks associated with joint activity and the tools that could be implemented to prevent them.
The corium-water interaction (ICE) project mains to improve knowledge of phenomena that may occur during a corium flow in water during a core melt accident in a nuclear reactor.
The MIRE (Mitigation of Releases to the Environment in the event of a nuclear accident) project aims to study and improve filtration of radioactive releases during a reactor meltdown accident (referred to as a severe accident).
The MITHYGENE project aims to improve knowledge of hydrogen risk and how to manage it during a severe accident.
The ODOBA (Observatory of the durability of reinforced concrete structures) project was launched by IRSN in 2016 for a period of at least 10 years. The aim of the project is to study concrete pathologies and their consequences for nuclear structures (e.g. Reactor containments).
The PROGRES program (ex-PEARL), aims to better understand the behavior of steam and water flow in a porous medium composed of solid particles at very high temperature under conditions representative of a core melt accident (or severe accident).
The PRISME program (Spread of a Fire for Multi room elementary Scenarios) is an international research program which experimentally studies the propagation of smoke and heat released by a fire located in a nuclear installation.
SAMHYCO-NET
is an international project launched in October 2017 for three years. It aims to improve the knowledge concerning on one hand the
risk of explosion combustible gases produced during a late-phase severe
accident, on the other hand the performance of existing means to prevent this
risk and to limit the related consequences.
The Reduction of Radiological Consequences of design basis and extension Accidents (R2CA) project, launched in September 2019, aim to develop new methods and computer codes (integrating the evaluation of uncertainty) in order to produce more realistic evaluations of radioactive releases resulting from Loss-of-Coolant Accident (LOCA) or of a Steam Generator Tube Rupture (SGTR) accident.
The Supplying Accurate Nuclear Data for energy and non-energy Applications (SANDA) project, launched in September 2019, aims to improve the nuclear data used to simulate the path of particles for radiation protection, radiotherapy, criticality risk assessment or neutron calculations.
SHINRAI ("Trust" in Japanese) is a Franco-Japanese research project,
launched in 2014 and coordinated by the IRSN, that aims to investigate
the social and political consequences of the Fukushima accident that
occurred in 2011.
Radiation protection for human health and environment
Launched in January 2014, this project aims to improve two types of models, those that forecast the dispersion of radionuclides in the environment and those that assess the impact of radionuclides on two compartments of the biosphere and their interfaces, i.e. the marine environment and land ecosystems and associated surface water.
EPI-CT (Epidemiological study to quantify risks for pediatric
computerized tomography and to optimize doses) is an international
epidemiological study that seeks to assess the risk of long-term effects
for children and adolescents exposed to ionizing radiation during CT
scans.
The HARMONIC (Health effects of cArdiac fluoRoscopy and MOderN radIotherapy in paediatriCs) project, launched in June 2019, aims to better understand the long-term effects on children's health of medical exposure to ionizing radiation, in particular for those with cancer treated by modern radiotherapy techniques and for those with heart disease treated by X-ray guided interventional catheterization.
The INTRUST (Innovations Therapeutiques Pour Le Traitement Du Syndrome
Gastrointestinal Radio-Induit - Therapeutic Innovations for the
Treatment of Radiation-Induced Gastrointestinal Syndrome) project, launched in 2019, aims
to put in place innovative medical countermeasures for the management of
radiological exposure resulting in acute intestinal failure.
Launched in early 2019, to run for a duration of four years, the IXBONE
project aims to develop a new cell therapy strategy to limit induced
side effects on bone tissue following radiation therapy used in the
treatment of cancers of the upper respiratory and digestive tracts.
The PRIODAC (repeated stable iodine prophylaxis in accidental situations) project, launched in March 2014, aims to identify procedures for administering stable iodine to people exposed to repeated or prolonged accidental radioactive releases, such as those observed at Fukushima.
Launched by IRSN in July 2009, the ROSIRIS program aims to better understand the mechanisms giving rise to secondary effects in radiotherapy.
Launched in January 2020, the TRAJECTOIRE project aims to establish, at the outlets of the main French river basins, the trajectories of contaminants produced by humans.
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.
