1/13 Session1. Opening and Overview – Paper S1-1 Overview of SARNET Deployment and Progress Thierry ALBIOL 1 , Tim HASTE 2 , Jean-Pierre VAN DORSSELAERE 1 , Christophe JOURNEAU 3 , Leonhard MEYER 4 , Bernard CHAUMONT 1 , Bal Raj SEHGAL 5 , Bernd SCHWINGES 6 , David BERAHA 6 , Alessandro ANNUNZIATO 7 , Roland ZEYEN 8 1) Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), France 2) Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland 3) Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA), France 4) Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH (FZK), Germany 5) Kungl Tekniska Högskolan (KTH), Sweden 6) Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS), Germany 7) Joint Research Centre (JRC) Ispra, Italy 8) Joint Research Centre (JRC) Petten - Cadarache, France EC-SARNET: FI6O-CT-2004-509065 SUMMARY 51 organizations network in SARNET (S evere A ccident R esearch NET work of Excellence) their capacities of research in order to resolve the most important remaining uncertainties for enhancing, in regard of Severe Accidents (SA), the safety of existing and future Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). This project has been defined in order to optimise the use of the available means and to constitute sustainable research groups in Europe and in Canada. SARNET tackles the fragmentation that exists between the different R&D national programmes, in defining common research programmes and developing common computer tools and methodologies for safety assessment. To reach these objectives, all the organizations networked in SARNET contribute to a so- called Joint Programme of Activities (JPA), which consists in: • Implementing an advanced communication tool for accessing all project information, fostering exchange of information, and managing documents; • Harmonizing and re-orienting the research programmes; • Jointly analysing the experimental results provided by research programmes in order to elaborate a common understanding of relevant phenomena; • Developing the integral computer code on severe accidents ASTEC, which capitalizes in terms of physical models the knowledge produced within SARNET; • Developing Scientific Databases, in which all the results of research programmes are stored in a common format (DATANET); • Developing a common methodology for Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) of NPPs; • Developing courses and writing a text book on SA for students and researchers; • Promoting personnel mobility between various European organizations. After the first period (2004-2008), co-funded by the European Commission (EC), the network will progressively evolve toward self-sustainability. This paper presents the general organization of the Network, the main achievements, after three years of activities and the bases – still under discussion – for the follow-up of the SARNET activities. The 2 nd European Review Meeting on Severe Accident Research (ERMSAR-2007) Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH (FZK), Germany, 12-14 June 2007