The SOCRATES project is the outcome of the HORIZON-EURATOM-2023-NRT-01-01 call “Safety of operating nuclear power plants and research reactors” (2023).
The SOCRATES project started 31.10.2023 with four years duration. The consortium includes 17 partners from 8 Member States. The overall budget of the project is 5.5 M€.
Objectives
The SOCRATES project addresses critical gaps in our understanding of the liquid source term during severe nuclear accidents and offers innovative solutions to mitigate and monitor the release of radionuclides into the environment.
The project contributes to the mid-to-long-term management of nuclear power plants after a severe accident by enhancing safety, environmental protection, safe waste management and public well-being.
SOCRATES is committed to educating and training MSc and PhD students in nuclear safety (WP7). Collaborating with leading institutions in the area of nuclear safety (e.g. NUGENIA organizing the Severe Accident Phenomenology course), SOCRATES ensures the state-of-the-art
knowledge to be shared with students and thus, cultivate the next generation of nuclear safety experts.
Expected Impact
- Comprehensive State-of-the-Art Report. SOCRATES will review the current understanding of the liquid source term in SA, with emphasis on evaluating the capabilities of existing accident analysis codes.
- Experimental database. SOCRATES is building a database on water chemistry during nuclear accidents. Experiments will place major emphasis in investigating: specific fission products behavior in water; fuel debris leaching, including tests with real corium samples.
- New computer code models. SOCRATES will develop computer code models capable of predicting and managing the potential release of radioactive materials in liquid form during severe nuclear power plant accidents.
- Innovative Absorbent Materials. Promising absorbents for mitigating the release of radioactive materials in liquid form are being identified, and performance to demonstrated, including their own synthesis in SOCRATES.
- Innovative Miniature Size Radiochemical Laboratory. A novel miniature size radiochemical laboratory is being developed in SOCRATES to allow the early measurement of radionuclides of interest.