Cost tradeoffs in consequence management at nuclear power plants: A risk based approach to setting optimal long-term interdiction limits for regulatory analyses

Conference · Mon May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1995

OSTI ID:102183

Mubayi, V

The consequences of severe accidents at nuclear power plants can be limited by various protective actions, including emergency responses and long-term measures, to reduce exposures of affected populations. Each of these protective actions involve costs to society. The costs of the long-term protective actions depend on the criterion adopted for the allowable level of long-term exposure. This criterion, called the ``long term interdiction limit,`` is expressed in terms of the projected dose to an individual over a certain time period from the long-term exposure pathways. The two measures of offsite consequences, latent cancers and costs, are inversely related and the choice of an interdiction limit is, in effect, a trade-off between these two measures. By monetizing the health effects (through ascribing a monetary value to life lost), the costs of the two consequence measures vary with the interdiction limit, the health effect costs increasing as the limit is relaxed and the protective action costs decreasing. The minimum of the total cost curve can be used to calculate an optimal long term interdiction limit. The calculation of such an optimal limit is presented for each of five US nuclear power plants which were analyzed for severe accident risk in the NUREG-1150 program by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 102183
• Report Number(s): BNL-NUREG-61805; CONF-950740-76; ON: DE95014499; TRN: 95:020285
• Resource Relation: Conference: Joint American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)/Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) pressure vessels and piping conference, Honolulu, HI (United States), 23-27 Jul 1995; Other Information: PBD: May 1995
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 NUCLEAR REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
21 NUCLEAR POWER REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
MANAGEMENT
RADIATION HAZARDS
BWR TYPE REACTORS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
EMERGENCY PLANS
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
RISK ASSESSMENT
RADIATION DOSES
LIMITING VALUES
M CODES
SOURCE TERMS
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS