Citation

Lois E, Modarres M. Reliab. Eng. 1985; 13(4): 191-210.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1985, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0143-8174(85)90058-7

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A methodology has been developed to perform a comparative assessment of nuclear power plant safety performance. In this methodology the abnormal event occurrences are applied to categories of nuclear power plants which have similar response to these occurrences so as to estimate the risks associated with the plants of each category. The risks calculated in this manner are used to compare the safety performance of the plant categories. The abnormal events used in this study are obtained from the accident sequence precursor study performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the abnormal events that occurred in the period of 1969-1979. Therefore, the comparative performance of these plants assessed in this study is applicable to this period only. Engineering insights concerning important plant category features are developed. In general, the results have shown that there are significant differences between the performance of the nuclear power plants. For instance, some plants are more susceptible to certain kinds of abnormal events, or some events are more likely to occur in new plants than in older ones or vice versa.