Paradigm Shift: Vital Risk Free Nuclear Power

Paradigm Shift: Vital Risk Free Nuclear Power

This paper reflects continuing works on radical improvement of NP’s acceptability. Scientific principles of the new paradigm on the guaranteed elimination of all significant (“vital”) threats and risks in the current NP (or their transition to the category of the ordinary risks) have been proposed and analysed. First, the analytical review of vital risk sources is presented. It concludes: all convenient reactor types including the traditional sodium cooled large oxide-fuelled fast reactors are not capable meeting this paradigm; meanwhile the creation of immunity (internal self-defence) from vital risks can be considered as a reliable “mechanism” for achieving such risk elimination. Because of multiplicity of vital risks, their independence and mutual contradictory, this requires the scientific definition of the corresponding “super-task” which would be capable finding out a desirable compromise.