A Comparison of the Safety Analysis Process and the Generation IV Proliferation Resistance/Physical Protection Assessment Methodology
The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) is a vehicle for the cooperative international development of future nuclear energy systems. The Generation IV program has established primary objectives in the areas of sustainability, economics, safety and reliability, and Proliferation Resistance and Physical Protection (PR&PP). In order to help meet the latter objective a program was launched in December 2002 to develop a rigorous means to assess nuclear energy systems with respect to PR&PP. The study of Physical Protection of a facility is a relatively well established methodology, but an approach to evaluate the Proliferation Resistance of a nuclear fuel cycle is not. This paper will examine the Proliferation Resistance (PR) evaluation methodology being developed by the PR group, which is largely a new approach and compare it to generally accepted nuclear facility safety evaluation methodologies. Safety evaluation methods have been the subjects of decades of development and use. Further, safety design and analysis is fairly broadly understood, as well as being the subject of federally mandated procedures and requirements. It is therefore extremely instructive to compare and contrast the proposed new PR evaluation methodology process with that used in safety analysis. By so doing, instructive and useful conclusions can be derived from the comparison that will help to strengthen the PR methodological approach as it is developed further. From the comparison made in this paper it is evident that there are very strong parallels between the two processes. Most importantly, it is clear that the proliferation resistance aspects of nuclear energy systems are best considered beginning at the very outset of the design process. Only in this way can the designer identify and cost effectively incorporate intrinsic features that might be difficult to implement at some later stage. Also, just like safety, the process to implement proliferation resistance should be a dynamic, iterative process that continually evolves with the design.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - Unknown]
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-99ID-13727
- OSTI ID:
- 911696
- Report Number(s):
- INL/CON-06-01212; TRN: US0800089
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International Conference on Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management,New Orleans, LA,05/14/2006,05/19/2006
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
DESIGN
ECONOMICS
EVALUATION
MANAGEMENT
NUCLEAR ENERGY
NUCLEAR FUELS
PHYSICAL PROTECTION
PROBABILISTIC ESTIMATION
PROLIFERATION
RELIABILITY
RISK ASSESSMENT
SAFETY
SAFETY ANALYSIS
Generation IV
proliferation resistance evaluation methodology