Research

In 2021, IRSN concluded or renewed several partnerships in different fields of research into nuclear safety or radiation protection. At the start of the year, it signed a collaboration agreement for five years with the Gustave-Roussy cancer research centre in the framework of the integrated research project on the radiobiology of tumours and healthy tissues (PIRATT). This is aimed at advancing the scientific knowledge of the benefit/risk balance in radiotherapy with the objective of preserving healthy tissues which are exposed when delivering high doses of radiation for treating tumours. Following the signing of a new framework agreement between CNRS and IRSN in late 2020, the two organisations undertook to structure their partnership through the drafting of a roadmap. The main identified topics gave rise to the organisation of several workshops, which will be used to define the scientific and technical objectives to be pursued over the duration of the agreement and the mechanisms for running the collaboration.

Internationally, IRSN continued its collaboration with the Singapore Nuclear Safety and Research Initiative of Singapore University (NUS/SNRSI), in particular in the fields of radiochemistry and radiobiology. The Institute also signed, on 8 March, a cooperation agreement with the Japanese University of Medicine of Fukushima aimed at reinforcing the current exchanges — in particular between scientists and students — as well as the scientific collaborations addressing the consequences of a nuclear accident. In the field of safety-criticality research, the Institute and the US Department of Energy (DOE) renewed, without a time limit, their cooperation agreement, resulting in the production, in the facilities of the Sandia National Laboratory, of the first experiment entirely designed by IRSN.

The IRSN is pursuing a “post-Fukushima” Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Research (RSNR) project designated PERFROI, the purpose of which is to study the cooling capacity of a reactor core in a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) situation. After launching in 2020, within this framework, an initial test campaign (“COAL”) using an experimental system developed internally and installed in a thermohydraulic loop made available by STERN Lab in Canada, IRSN last year successfully conducted a new phase of its research programme. The results of this second campaign, comprising 26 tests, yielded precious information for the validation and improvement of the digital models, in particular the DRACCAR software, developed by the Institute to simulate LOCA situations and used in support of its expert appraisals.

In May, IRSN brought together the club of users of the ASTEC (Accident Source Term Evaluation Code) software system, who contribute to the progress and development of its new features. Maintained and developed by the Institute, this system can be used to simulate all phenomena involved in a reactor core meltdown accident, from trigger event to source term.

In the field of research into fires, IRSN conducted in June the last phase of the PRISME-3 campaign – a project overseen by the OECD/NEA – with fire tests in corridor spaces, representing a first on the international stage. 2021 also marked the end of the modernisation work on the GALAXIE research platform, situated at Cadarache (Bouches-du-Rhône), whose test facilities enable the Institute to conduct the programmes required for managing the fire risk in nuclear facilities.

In 2021, IRSN began work on six collaborative research projects selected by the European Commission on the ageing of nuclear facility structures and equipment and improving their long-term safety. With regard to ageing, one project concerns the concrete components of a reactor vessel and four others concern the metallic materials of the vessels and components of the primary circuit. A sixth project addresses fracture mechanics in a multi-physics approach to cold shock and vessel failure. These various projects are scheduled to run for 4 years.

Launched in late 2019 for a period of four years and with the support of the ANR (Agence nationale de la recherche – National research agency), the RESCUE project aims to develop a new clinical treatment strategy based on the provision of freezable and ready-to-use hematopoietic grafts for victims of radiation poisoning, following an emergency radiological or nuclear situation, who develop acute radiation syndrome (in its hematopoietic form). Following on from the GIPSIS project, which had made it possible to demonstrate in the laboratory the possibility of generating a long-term functional hematopoietic graft from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC), the research in the RESCUE project conducted in 2021 aims at validating this proof of concept on a large animal model before moving on to clinical trials.
Still in the field of the treatment of victims of radiation poisoning, 2021 saw the continuation of the ANR INTRUST project, managed by IRSN and designed to develop a treatment for victims of acute radiation syndrome (in its gastrointestinal form). If the tests prove to be conclusive, INTRUST will also open up a new avenue for the handling of patients suffering from digestive complications following radiotherapy and those suffering from a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestine.

In the field of human and social sciences linked to radiation protection, IRSN is conducting ergonomics research to support radiotherapy centres in managing change, such as the appropriation of a new medical imaging system. Another project conducted in 2021 has made it possible to produce, in collaboration with the healthcare professionals concerned, a guide designed to support them in maintaining healthcare safety in situations of technical or material change.
In addition, IRSN has continued, in partnership with the radiotherapy department of the Gustave-Roussy centre, its research project into the methods for analysing risks in a complex and human socio-technical system (MARSCH), with the aim of developing a new approach to risk analysis in radiotherapy.