Recents Developments in Nuclear Safety Research

The presentation starts from sustainability considerations of different energy carries like oil, hoard cool, or nuclear energy.
It is highlighted, that in terms of sustainability nuclear energy suffers from the danger of proliferation of weapons grade material, the maximum damage of a conceivable severe accident, and the extremely long isolation period of the nuclear waste in the final disposal. Discussing the safety analysis of so called boron dilution transients in PWRs, the behaviour of the reactor pressure vessel during a severe core melt accident, and the possibilities of the transmutation of long lived radio-nuclides it is shown how modern nuclear safety research can contribute to improved sustainability performance of nuclear energy.