DYNAMIC AND CLASSICAL PRA: A BWR SBO CASE COMPARISON
As part of the Light-Water Sustainability Program (LWRS), the purpose of the Risk Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) Pathway research and development is to support plant decisions for risk-informed margin management with the aim to improve economics, reliability, and sustain the safety of current NPPs. In this paper, we describe the RISMC analysis process illustrating how mechanistic (i.e., dynamic system simulators) and probabilistic (stochastic sampling strategies) approaches are combined in a dynamic PRA fashion in order to estimate safety margins. We use the scenario of a “station blackout” (SBO) wherein offsite power and onsite power are lost, thereby causing a challenge to plant safety systems. We describe the RISMC approach, illustrate the station blackout modeling, and compare this with traditional risk analysis modeling for this type of accident scenario. In the RISMC approach the dataset obtained consists of set of simulation runs (performed by using codes such as RELAP5/3D) where timing and ordering of events is changed accordingly to the stochastic sampling strategy adopted. On the other side, classical PRA methods, which are based on event-tree (FT) and fault-tree (FT) structures, generate minimal cut sets and probability values associated to each ET branch. The comparison of the classical and RISMC approaches is performed not only in terms of overall core damage probability but also considering statistical differences in the actual sequence of events. The outcome of this comparison analysis shows similarities and dissimilarities between the approaches but also highlights the greater amount of information that can be generated by using the RISMC approach.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1194025
- Report Number(s):
- INL/CON-14-33731
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: PSA 2015,Sun Valley,04/26/2015,04/30/2015
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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