Safety in Nuclear Power: A Proposal

MARS is a fission nuclear reactor developed at the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Energy Conversion of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. The design was aimed at a multipurpose, modular reactor to be used in high population density areas not only for electricity generation, but also for industrial heat production and, in particular, for water desalination or district heating. This objective, not common for nuclear power plants, required the adoption of very high safety standards not achievable by the use of conventional systems; the only viable approach was the extensive use of “passive” safety. The whole plant is assembled with special flanged connections and even major components of the primary loop, such as the reactor vessel and the steam generator, may be easily substituted or repaired. The cost of KWh is competitive with that of large reactors.