Analysis of newly proposed setpoint methods
- Nuclear Engineering Dept., Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-2300 (United States)
- Nuclear Engineering Program, Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH 43202 (United States)
- U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, Washington, DC 20555 (United States)
A new methodology for evaluating the operability of safety critical instrumentation has been proposed. Common to the prior method, a limiting trip setpoint (LSP) is determined to protect the analytical limit by considering uncertainties inherent in the measurement process. Channel operability is assured by periodically performing a channel operability test (COT) which compares the as-found trip point to the previous as-left trip point and evaluates the deviation. Licensees can include an additional conservative margin which results in a nominal trip setpoint (NSP) versus the LSP. If the setting tolerance is small as compared to the deviation limit, an alternate operability test can be applied that compares the as-found trip point to the LSP (or NSP as applicable) rather than the as-left trip setpoint. This method does not provide the actual channel deviation for operability determination so a penalty term may be appropriate. This paper provides an analysis of the alternate channel operability test and provides recommendations for setting a penalty term to reduce the non-conservativeness of the alternate channel operability test to a pre-defined value so as to preserve the required confidence level of the uncertainty analysis. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22030047
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: NPIC and HMIT 2006: 5. International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation Controls, and Human Machine Interface Technology, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 12-16 Nov 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; 15 refs.; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 5. International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation Controls, and Human Machine Interface Technology| 1430 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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