Skip to main content
  • DE
  • EN
  • FR
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
Suche
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)

Hauptnavigation

  • Labs & User ServicesOpen mainmenu item
    • Overview
    • Research at PSI
    • Research Divisions and Labs
    • Facilities and Instruments
    • Research Initiatives
    • PSI User Labs
    • Scientific Highlights
    • Scientific Events
    • Scientific Career
    • Useroffice
  • VisitorsOpen mainmenu item
    • Overview
    • Contact
    • How to find us
    • Public Events
    • Visitor Centre psi forum
    • Schülerlabor iLab
    • Center for Proton Therapy
  • IndustryOpen mainmenu item
    • Overview
    • Technology Transfer
    • Spin-off Companies
    • PARK innovAARE
  • Our ResearchOpen mainmenu item
    • Current topics from our research
    • Matter and Material
    • Human Health
    • Energy and Environment
    • Large Research Facilities
    • Brochures
    • Films
    • Media Corner
  • Career & Further EducationOpen mainmenu item
    • Job Opportunities
    • Personnel Policy
    • Working at PSI
    • Equal Opportunities, Diversity & Inclusion
    • Training and Further Education
    • Vocational Training
    • PSI Education Centre
    • Support Program "PSI Career Return Program"
    • PSI-FELLOW/COFUND
  • About PSIOpen mainmenu item
    • PSI in brief
    • Strategy
    • Guiding principles
    • Facts and figures
    • Organisational structure
    • Suppliers and customers
    • Customers E-Billing
    • IT and Computing
    • Safety at PSI (in German)

You are here:

  1. PSI Home
  2. Labs & User Services
  3. Nuclear Energy and Safety (NES)

Secondary navigation

Nuclear Energy and Safety (NES)

  • About NES
    • Organisational Structure
    • Collaborations & Partners
  • Laboratories
  • People
  • Projects
  • Facilities
  • Teaching and Education
    • Current PhDs
    • Former PhDs
    • Master Students
  • Events
    • Kompetenzen & Highlights 2017
    • Kompetenzen & Highlights 2016
    • Kompetenzen & Highlights 2015
    • Kompetenzen & Highlights 2014
  • Scientific Highlights
    • Archive
  • Publications
    • 2018 – 2014
    • 2013 – 2008
    • 2007 – 2002
    • 2001 and before
    • LRT
      • 2018 ‒ 2014
    • AHL
      • 2018 ‒ 2014
    • LES
      • 2018 – 2014
    • LEA
      • 2018 – 2014
    • LNM
      • 2018 – 2014
    • LRC
      • 2018 ‒ 2014
    • LSM
      • 2018 – 2014

Nuclear Energy and Safety Research Division

The Paul Scherrer Institute has a long tradition in energy research. With respect to nuclear energy, PSI has a unique position in Switzerland. This is due to its heavy infrastructure, namely the Hot Laboratory with so-called hot cells, well equipped and shielded zones for work and research on radioactive material. In addition, the nuclear energy division takes advantage of PSI's large facilities like the Swiss Light Source (SLS) and the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source (SINQ).

Based on this infrastructure and the know-how of its collaborators the Division is involved in three main topics of research: Safety of currently operating light-water reactors, safety characteristics of future reactor concepts and related fuel cycles, and long-term safety of deep geological repositories for nuclear wastes of all kind.

The work is being done on behalf of the Federal Government and in close cooperation with the Swiss nuclear utilities, the national waste management organization, Nagra, and the national regulatory authority, ENSI. It also includes scientific services for the nuclear power plants. Most of the research is connected with international projects on a multi- or bi-national cooperation basis.

Upcoming NES events

No upcoming events.

Recent News from NES

2 November 2020
Teaser Pic AHL Highlight 11-2020

New element and speciation specific analytical options at AHL

The Hot Laboratory division (AHL) within PSI’s Nuclear Energy and Safety (NES) division continually upgrades and advances its analytical infrastructure to provide cutting-edge scientific service to PSI’s researchers and industrial customers. A new, fully automatable and highly flexible Ion Chromatograph (IC) furthers AHL’s efforts in sample miniaturization and extends the spectrum of destructive analytical capabilities to element and speciation specific analyses. With the new IC and its modern ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) facilities, AHL offers innovative scientific options for nuclear and general research. Moreover, speciation analyses by IC-ICP-MS for polyvalent inorganic water pollutants such as Cr or As and the acquisition of a new ICP-OES system (Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry) enable future autonomy in wastewater management.

Read more
18 September 2020
Teaser Pic LES Highlight 09-2020

Deep geological disposal of radioactive waste in clay rocks

Geological waste disposal, cement clay interaction

• A considerable reduction of HTO and 36Cl− was observed after 6 years interaction.
• The chloride flux showed a much stronger reduction compared to HTO.
• For HTO the relation between the De and the porosity in the clay part can be described using Archie's law.
• No complete clogging of the porosity was observed after 6 years interaction.

Read more
15 May 2020
Christian Bauer und Romain Sacchi

Life cycle assessment of cars – new web tool helps consumers and researchers

Media Releases Energy and Environment Renewable Energies

Decision support for car buyers: Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute have developed a web tool called the Carculator that can be used to compare the environmental performance of passenger cars in detail.

Read more
5 May 2020
Tom Kober

Long-term developments of energy pricing and consumption in industry

Media Releases Energy and Environment Renewable Energies

Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, on behalf of a research project funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), have studied how energy consumption by Swiss industry develops depending on energy prices. One result: Price increases for energy usually affect energy consumption only over the long term.

Read more
4 March 2020
Teaser Interview Christian Bauer

"Electric is already the right choice today"

Energy and Environment Renewable Energies

An interview on automotive power systems with Christian Bauer, a scientist at PSI's Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis who specialises in life cycle and sustainability analyses.

Read more
18 February 2020
Teaser Vorfahrt für E-Autos

Make way for electric cars

Energy and Environment Renewable Energies

Petrol, diesel, fuel cell or electric – which is the automobile of the future? A PSI study has examined the overall climate impact of various vehicle engines in use today and also projected it to the year 2040.

Read more
21 January 2020
Alloy 182 RPV Steel Weldline

Assessment of stress corrosion cracking incidents in Alloy 182 – reactor pressure vessel dissimilar metal welds

Several stress corrosion cracking (SCC) incidents recently occurred in Alloy 182 - reactor pressure vessel (RPV) dissimilar metal welds in boiling water reactors (BWR). These SCC cracks tend to grow towards the RPV due to weld microstructure and residual stress profiles and might grow into the RPV. They thus represent a serious potential safety concern. PSI has evaluated under which conditions such cracks could grow into the RPV and also developed SCC crack growth disposition curves for the RPV steels that can be used for safety assessments of such cracks. With these curves that were recently accepted as a new Code Case N-896 in the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, sufficient safety margins could be demonstrated for such crack configurations with the current inspection intervals of the periodic in-service inspection.

Read more
20 January 2020
Teaser pic 01-2020

Nuclear Data – Towards a Stronger Link between Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Simulations

All matter in the universe is made of atoms and all atoms are made of particles. Spontaneous changes within atoms as well as collisions between atoms and surrounding particles are nuclear reaction processes guided by nuclear physics laws. To simulate these processes using computer models, probabilities for the various involved nuclear reactions are required. This is precisely the role of nuclear data: supply the computational models with evaluated quantities representing these nuclear reaction probabilities. Through this, nuclear data can effectively be seen as the fundamental link between nature and any computer simulation involving nuclear reactions. It is thus of primary importance to continuously improve knowledge on nuclear data. In that context, researchers at the laboratory for reactor physics and thermal-hydraulics have recently focused on the development and application of Bayesian frameworks combining both differential and integral experiments for the improvement of nuclear data. By considering the different experiments together, the aim is to achieve enhancements of the nuclear data evaluations while preserving the basic nuclear physics sum rules.

Read more
16 January 2020
Teaser Interview Adelmann

Simulation: The third pillar of science

Biology Matter and Material Large Research Facilities

PSI researchers simulate and model large research facilities as well as experiments, for example, in the materials and biological sciences. Andreas Adelmann, head of PSI's Laboratory for Scientific Computing and Modelling, explains how they do it.

Read more

Sidebar

Contact

Research Division
Nuclear Energy and Safety
Paul Scherrer Institute
OHSA/E72
5232 Villigen PSI
Switzerland

Division Head
Prof. Dr. Andreas Pautz
Telephone: +41 56 310 3497
E-mail: Andreas.Pautz@psi.ch

Executive Assistant
Ute D. Mayer
Telephone: +41 56 310 2740
E-mail: Ute.Mayer@psi.ch
Ramona Dreier
Telephone: +41 56 310 2741
E-mail: Ramona.Dreier@psi.ch

NES Open positions

Current job openings in the Research Division for Nuclear Energy and Safety


Directions to PSI

How to get to the Paul Scherrer Institute (description and map)

top

Footer

Paul Scherrer Institut

Forschungsstrasse 111
5232 Villigen PSI
Switzerland
How to find us

Imprint
Terms and Conditions

Login

Telephone: +41 56 310 21 11
Telefax: +41 56 310 21 99
Contact form

Visitor Centre psi forum
School Lab iLab (in German)
Center for Proton Therapy

Follow us: Twitter (in English) LinkedIn Youtube Issuu RSS

Quicklinks

  • Phone Book/People Search
  • Digital User Office
  • Technology transfer
  • PSI Publications
  • Computing
  • Safety (in German)
  • Job Opportunities
  • Vocational Training (in German)
  • Suppliers
  • Customers E-Billing
  • PSI Guest House
  • PSI Gastronomie (in German)

For the media

  • Media Contact
  • Media Releases
  • Social Media Newsroom
  • Facts and Figures
  • PSI in brief
  • Films
  • DE
  • EN
  • FR