Publication Laka-library:
Dutch procedures guide for conducting Probabilistic Safety Assessment of nuclear power plants (Level 1)
| Author | KFD |
| Date | June 1993 |
| Classification | 1.01.0.20/11 (NEW NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS GENERAL) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. BACKGROUND The first comprehensive application of methods and techniques of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) dates back to 1975 to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Reactor Safety Study (WASH-1400) [1]. Since that landmark study, there has been substantial methodological development, and PSA techniques have become a standard tool in safety evaluation of nuclear power plants (NPPs). The main benefit of PSA is to provide insights into plant design, performance and environmental impacts, including the identification of dominant risk contributors and the comparison of options for reducing risk. PSA provides a consistent and integrated model of nuclear power plant safety. Consequently, PSA offers a consistent and integrated framework for safety related decision making. Changes or alternatives in different design and engineering areas in a nuclear power plant can be compared on a common basis, namely the quantitative estimate of risk provided by PSAs. Furthermore, PSA is a conceptual and mathematical tool for deriving numerical estimates of risk for nuclear plants and industrial installations in general. PSA can also quantify the uncertainties in these estimates. PSA methods continue to be developed and improvements will reduce uncertainties; however, present PSA methods are quite capable of providing meaningful numerical results. PSA differs from traditional deterministic safety analysis in that it provides a methodological approach to identifying accident sequences that can follow from a broad range of initiating events and it includes the systematic and realistic determination of accident frequencies and consequences. A major advantage of PSA is that it allows for the quantification of uncertainties in safety assessments together with the quantification of expert opinion and/or judgement. Finally, PSA has been shown to provide important safety insights in addition to those provided by deterministic analysis. In international practice three levels of PSA have evolved: Level 1: The assessment of plant failures leading to the determination of core damage frequency. Level 2: The assessment of containment response leading, together with Level 1 results, to the determination of containment release frequencies. Level 3: The assessment of off-site consequences leading, together with the results of Level 2 analysis, to estimates of public risks.
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