engleski

On Use of PSA for Characterization of Risk Significance of Operational Events and Issues in NPPs

Like in the case of other industrial facilities, different low-level operational events or issues can be observed to take place during the operation of nuclear power plants. Similarly, a number of findings and observations is being made during the safety reviews which are regularly conducted at the utilities or at the regulatory side. In most of those cases, there is no any consequence concerning the nuclear safety or risk. The philosophy established during the previous two decades regarding the operating experience feedback is that any of those observed occurrences or issues may be an opportunity to learn and further improve plant safety performance. In order to distinguish or “filter out” those events or issues which deserve a deeper consideration, a concept of “risk significance” is being introduced into the field of operational events and issues investigation. Paper presents and discusses the probabilistic safety analysis (PSA) concepts for the characterization of operational events and safety issues in terms of quantitative risk significance. The types of information from a plant-specific PSA which can be used for this purpose are pointed out and examples and illustrations provided. Basic approaches which can, also, be used by those evaluators or investigators which are not necessarily specialized in PSA are outlined.

PSA; nuclear power plants; operational events; risk significance

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