The KROTOS test facility is a relatively small scale experimental installation dedicated to the study of:

• (a) molten fuel-coolant pre-mixing either with prototypic reactor melts or simulants such as alumina up to 5 kg;
• (b) progression and energetics of spontaneous and triggered fuel-coolant interactions (vapor explosions).

The OECD-IAEA Paks Fuel Project aimed to support the understanding of fuel behaviour in accident conditions on the basis of analyses of the Paks-2 event. Numerical simulation of the most relevant aspects of the event and comparison of the calculation results with the available information was carried out between 2006 and 2007.

FARO (Furnace And Release Oven) experimental facility began the experiments of the LWR-MFCI phenomena in 1990 in collaboration with several reactor safety research organizations from European Union member countries and with the participation of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

This programme sets out to reduce uncertainties when evaluating the environmental release of radioactive products such as iodine or ruthenium following a core meltdown accident in a pressurised water reactor (PWR). The experimental data gained from this programme are used to develop and validate numerical simulation tools needed to assess the consequences of such an accident and to evaluate the efficiency of the prevention means.

The Epicur programme (physicochemical studies on confined iodine under irradiation) aims at providing experimental data to validate the chemical models for iodine in the reactor containment under accident conditions. These models are integrated into the Iode model of the Astec computer code, jointly developed by IRSN and GRS. They are used to predict the behaviour of different types of possible accidents and related releases of radioactive products.

The PWR PACTEL test facility is designed and constructed in 2009 to be used in the safety studies related to thermal hydraulics of pressurized water reactors with EPR type vertical steam generators

The Mozart analytical test program, conducted from 2005 to 2007, was dedicated to the study of oxidation in air of nuclear fuel cladding. This study was part of the International Source Term Program initiated by the IRSN, whose aim is to reduce uncertainties concerning the evaluation of radioactive product emissions into the environment in the event of a core meltdown accident in a pressurized water reactor or a spent fuel storage pool accident.

In case of a steam explosion, e.g. as a consequence of a severe reactor accident, part of the thermal energy of the melt is transferred into mechanical energy. At Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, the ECO experiments are being directed to measure the conversion factor under well-defined conditions. The programme was launched in 2000. Alumina from a thermite reaction is used as a simulating material instead of corium. Dimensions of the test facility as well as major test conditions, e.g. temperature and release mode of the melt, water inventory and test procedure, are based on the former PREMIX experiments (from 1994 to 1999).

The PHEBUS FP (Fission Products) international research programme was conducted between 1988 and 2010. Its purpose was to improve the understanding of the phenomena occurring during a core meltdown accident in a light water reactor and to validate the computational software used to represent these phenomena in reactor safety evaluations. The report of the last test was published in December 2010 and was the topic of a closing seminar organised in June 2012.

The REKO-3 test facility allows the investigation of catalyst samples inside a vertical flow channel under well defined conditions comprising gas mixture, flow rate and inlet temperature.

FARO (Furnace And Release Oven) experimental facility began the experiments of the LWR-MFCI phenomena in 1990 in collaboration with several reactor safety research organizations from European Union member countries and with the participation of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The general experimental procedurewas to establish the desired composition of gases in 1-L glass flasks, optionally to add surface coupons, to irradiate the glass flasks at given dose rates until the desired doses were reached, and to subsequently determine the final air radiolysis products concentrations by an off-line method.