Criticality safety

Criticality safety 101: from the physics basics to criticality accident.

This course is intended for engineers who will participate in criticality safety studies and analysis.

Module content:

• Organization of criticality safety in France
• Physical phenomena and neutronics allowing to understand a criticality accidents
• Criticality parameters and critical curves
• Criticality standards, the Maubert guide, available guides and tools
• Existing detection means
• Near-accident incidents and major accidents in laboratories and factories
• Radiological consequences of criticality accidents
• Crisis management
• The Tokaimura criticality accident
• Calculation codes: input and output data, validity domains, and usage constraints
• Analysis of calculation notes
• Principles of defense in depth and standard plan of safety analyses
• Characteristics of criticality accidents
• Application of defense in depth to criticality accidents
• The beginnings of the safety analysis approach applied to the transport of fissile materials
• Main regulations for the transport of fissile materials
• Criticality study of transport packages
• Sensitization of the operating staff to the criticality risk