Risk-based inspection and organizational factors

Journal Article · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:89153

Specter, H

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has recently taken important steps to improve the processes by which it performs inspections at nuclear power plants. For example, during the January 31, 1994, NRC staff presentation on the {open_quotes}Status of PRA Implementation Plan Development,{close_quotes} the subject of risk-based inspections was included. The staff divided risk-based inspection into two broad areas - inspection planning and assessing the significance of findings. Each of these broad areas were further subdivided. For example, inspection planning would consider probabilistic risk assessment and individual plant examination (IPE) insights, operating experience reviews, and the identification of plant-specific lists of components important to system availability and operability. Issues such as recovery potential, accident management philosophy, and conditional failures would be considered. With regard to assessing the significance of inspection findings, this is envisioned to include a systems reliability analysis portion and a risk impact evaluation effort, both of which would then be combined to evaluate the risk significance of various inspection findings. Such inspection findings might be expressed as to their impact on core-damage frequency and other parameters related to plant performance. Expressing inspection findings in these terms then permits a risk ranking of such findings. The NRC plans several pilot programs to help develop this more modern inspection process.

• OSTI ID: 89153
• Report Number(s): CONF-941102--
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 71; ISSN 0003-018X; ISSN TANSAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
COST
INSPECTION
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
RISK ASSESSMENT
US NRC