Containment safety margins

Objective of the Containment Safety Margins program is the development and verification of methodologies which are capable of reliably predicting the ultimate load-carrying capability of light water reactor containment structures under accident and severe environments. The program was initiated in June 1980 at Sandia and this paper addresses the first phase of the program which is essentially a planning effort. Brief comments are made about the second phase, which will involve testing of containment models.