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Title: Common cause analysis of the TREAT upgrade reactor protection system

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6230302

A triply redundant reactor scram system (RSS) has been designed for the upgraded TREAT facility. The independent failures reliability goal for the RSS is <10/sup -9/ failures per demand. An independent failures analysis indicated that this goal would be met. In addition, however, recognizing that in heavily redundant systems common-cause failures dominate, a common cause analysis of the TREAT upgrade RSS was done. The objective was to identify those common-cause initiators which could affect the functioning of the RSS, and to subsequently modify the design of the RSS so that the effect was minimized. A number of common-cause initiators were identified which were capable of defeating the triple redundancy feature of the reactor scram system. By means of a systematic analysis of the effect these initiators could have on the system, it was possible to identify seven necessary design and procedural modifications that would greatly reduce the probability of the reactor being run while the RSS was in a faulted condition.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-31-109-ENG-38
OSTI ID:
6230302
Report Number(s):
CONF-850206-5; ON: DE85002101
Resource Relation:
Conference: International ANS/ENS topical meeting on probabilistic safety methods and applications, San Francisco, CA, USA, 24 Feb 1985
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English