SARNET will continue to consolidate the sustainable integration of the European severe accident research capacities, already in progress in the 1st phase of the network.

 
Capitalizing the acquired knowledge in ASTEC and in the experimental database will produce necessary conditions for preserving the knowledge produced by thousands of person-years and disseminating it to a large number of end-users. By fostering collaborative work on developing and validating ASTEC, the role of this code for any kind of water-cooled nuclear power plant will be reinforced. European end-users are currently mostly using integral computer codes developed in the United States, which results in a strong dependence on the US technology. By fostering collaborative work on the ASTEC code, the role of Europe as world leader in this domain will be consolidated.

These network end-products (ASTEC, experimental database) may be used not only for R&D activities but also for applications by industry and safety authorities (or technical safety organizations). In return, the end-products that capitalize the large amount of knowledge acquired in this area will contribute to a better prevention and mitigation of severe accidents in existing and future European NPPs of diverse types, and thus to the improvement of their safety.

Through a periodic review of priorities and co-programming of work amongst organisations, the use of available means and budget will be more efficient. SARNET becomes clearly a reference for severe accident research priorities and impact on national programmes and fund allocations. Progressively all the research activities in this field will become strongly coordinated by the network, which will contribute to an optimised use of European resources.

Through education and training programmes, SARNET will develop synergies with educational institutions and thus keep attractive the concerned domain of activity for students and young researchers. This will also contribute to enhance and preserve in a sustainable way the European scientific leadership. The network will also provide a wide panel of competencies for supporting the emergence of new nuclear countries.