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Current use of probabilistic safety evaluations for advanced reactor concepts

  • C. Kirchsteiger and R. Bolado-Lavin
Published/Copyright: March 26, 2013
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Abstract

There is international consensus that for the various nuclear Advanced Reactor Concepts (ARCs), which are currently under development, design and operational safety goals as well as modern review frameworks for risk assessment required for licensing related decision-making shall be developed. The objective of this paper is to screen information available from different countries and international organisations on such efforts as far as they consider the use of Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) or specific probabilistic evaluations. The screening of available information is done for many different types of ARCs (so-called Generation III, III+ and IV), including either active, passive or both types of systems. Main conclusion is that very little information is available for full probabilistic assessments, only recently some activities started on partial probabilistic evaluations, such as on the reliability of certain types of passive systems. Therefore, published statements on significantly lower risk levels achieved by certain ARCs are at least not verifiable.

Kurzfassung

Es gibt einen allgemeinen Konsens, dass für die zur Zeit entwickelten zahlreichen fortgeschrittenen Reaktorkonzepte design- und betriebliche Sicherheitsziele sowie Risikoanalyserahmenbedingungen geschaffen werden müssen. Zielsetzung dieses Artikels ist es, die in verschiedenen Ländern und durch internationale Organisationen vorangetriebenen Maßnahmen in diesem Bereich zu untersuchen. Die Auswertung öffentlich zugänglicher Information in diesem Bereich wird für fortgeschrittenen Reaktorkonzepte der sogenannten Generation III, III+ und IV durchgeführt. Die Hauptschlussfolgerung ist, dass es trotz sehr umfangreicher auch öffentlich zugänglicher Information zu technischen Sicherheitsaspekten derartiger Reaktorkonzepte kaum Informationen über den geforderten probabilistischen Sicherheitsnachweis gibt. Die so oft publizierten Meldungen über signifikante Risikominderungen entsprechender Reaktorkonzepte sind daher zumindest im Rahmen des selbst geforderten Sicherheitsregelwerks nicht nachvollziehbar.

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Received: 2005-9-7
Published Online: 2013-03-26
Published in Print: 2006-05-01

© 2006, Carl Hanser Verlag, München

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