Model for the detection and suppression of fires in nuclear power plants and some related statistical problems

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:5511354

Siu, N O

The assessment of the fire risk in nuclear power plants requires the analysis of fire scenarios within specified rooms. A methodology is developed here that integrates the fire protection features of a given room into an existing fire risk analysis framework. Two of the components of this methodology are a model for the time required to detect and suppress a fire in a given room, called the hazard time, and a procedure for applying this model when analyzing the likelihood of component failure due to fire. The model accounts for the reliability of fire detection and suppression equipment, as well as for the characteristic rates of the detection and suppression processes. Because the available evidence for fire detection and suppression in nuclear power plants is sparse and often qualitative, a third component of this methodology is a set of methods needed to employ imprecise information in a statistical analysis. These methods can be applied to a side variety of problems. The available evidence from actual fire incidents in nuclear power plants is used to quantify the uncertainties in the parameters of the model. Sensitivity analyses are also performed to indicate the robustness of the derived probability distributions to various assumptions.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Los Angeles (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5511354
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210000* -- Nuclear Power Plants
FIRE FIGHTING
FIRE HAZARDS
HAZARDS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
POWER PLANTS
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS