scholarly journals Utilização da análise probabilística de segurança como metodologia de avaliação e gerenciamento de riscos inerentes a usinas nucleoelétricas / Use of Probabilistic Safety Assessment as methodology for the evaluation and management of risks inherent in nuclear power plants

Author(s):  
Jônatas Franco Campos da Mata Mata ◽  
Amir Zacarias Mesquita Mesquita

RESUMENO século XXI trouxe notáveis avanços tecnológicos com relação a fontes de geração de energia elétrica denominadas de sustentáveis. Entretanto, as fontes limpas de energia apresentam desvantagens, como alto custo de implantação e baixa potência gerada, quando comparadas à matriz nucleoelétrica. Em relação à segurança, a tecnologia nucleoelétrica trabalha com metodologias modernas e eficientes, onde se destaca a Avaliação Probabilística de Segurança (APS). O presente trabalho apresenta as principais etapas para a realização da APS, além de evidenciar as melhores práticas, encontradas em países como os Estados Unidos, França, Canadá e Reino Unido em comparação com o Brasil.ABSTRACT The 21st century brought remarkable technological advances in relation to sources of electricity generation called sustainable. However, clean energy sources have disadvantages, such as high implantation costs and low power generated, when compared to the nucleoelectric matrix. Regarding safety, the nucleoelectric technology works with modern and efficient methodologies, in which the Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) stands out. This paper presents the main steps to perform PSA, in addition to showing the best practices found in countries such as the United States, France, Canada and the United Kingdom compared to Brazil.  

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 929
Author(s):  
Gyun Seob Song ◽  
Man Cheol Kim

Monte Carlo simulations are widely used for uncertainty analysis in the probabilistic safety assessment of nuclear power plants. Despite many advantages, such as its general applicability, a Monte Carlo simulation has inherent limitations as a simulation-based approach. This study provides a mathematical formulation and analytic solutions for the uncertainty analysis in a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA). Starting from the definitions of variables, mathematical equations are derived for synthesizing probability density functions for logical AND, logical OR, and logical OR with rare event approximation of two independent events. The equations can be applied consecutively when there exist more than two events. For fail-to-run failures, the probability density function for the unavailability has the same probability distribution as the probability density function (PDF) for the failure rate under specified conditions. The effectiveness of the analytic solutions is demonstrated by applying them to an example system. The resultant probability density functions are in good agreement with the Monte Carlo simulation results, which are in fact approximations for those from the analytic solutions, with errors less than 12.6%. Important theoretical aspects are examined with the analytic solutions such as the validity of the use of a right-unbounded distribution to describe the uncertainty in the unavailability/probability. The analytic solutions for uncertainty analysis can serve as a basis for all other methods, providing deeper insights into uncertainty analyses in probabilistic safety assessment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhang Zhang ◽  
Zhijian Zhang ◽  
He Wang ◽  
Lixuan Zhang ◽  
Dabin Sun

Abstract To ensure nuclear safety and prevent or mitigate the consequences of accidents, many safety systems have been set up in nuclear power plants to limit the consequences of accidents. Even though technical specifications based on deterministic safety analysis are applied to avoid serious accidents, they are too poor to handle multi-device managements compared with configuration risk management which computes risks in nuclear power plants based on probabilistic safety assessment according to on-going configurations. In general, there are two methodologies employed in configuration risk management: living probabilistic safety assessment (LPSA) and risk monitor (RM). And average reliability databases during a time of interest are employed in living probabilistic safety assessment, which may be naturally applied to make long-term or regular management projects. While transient risk databases are involved in risk monitor to measure transient risks in nuclear power plants, which may be more appropriate to monitor the real-time risks in nuclear power plants and provide scientific real-time suggestions to operators compared with living probabilistic safety assessment. And this paper concentrates on the applications and developments of living probabilistic safety assessment and risk monitor which are the mainly foundation of the configuration risk management to manage nuclear power plants within safe threshold and avoid serious accidents.


Author(s):  
Pengyi Peng ◽  
Weidong Liu ◽  
Zhichao Yang

Instrumentation and control (I&C) systems in nuclear power plants (NPPs) have the ability to initiate the safety-related functions necessary to shut down the plants and maintain the plants in a safe shutdown condition. I&C systems of low reliability will bring risks to the safe operation of NPPs. A sufficient level of redundancy and diversity of I&C design to ensure the safety is a major focus when designing a new reactor. Usually multiple signal paths are included in an I&C system design. Meanwhile, besides the protection and safety monitoring system (PMS), other sub-systems of I&C such as the diverse actuation system (DAS) will be included as a diverse backup of PMS to perform the functions of reactor trip and engineered safety features actuation systems (ESFAS). However, the construction costs increase as the level of system redundancy and diversity grows. In fact, from the perspective of deterministic theory, an I&C system of only two chains can meet the single failure criterion. So how to obtain the balance of safety and economy is a challenging problem in I&C system designing. Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) is the most commonly used quantitative risk assessment tool for decision-making in selecting the optimal design among alternative options. In this paper, PSA technique was used to identify whether the I&C system design offers adequate redundancy, diversity, and independence with sufficient defense-in-depth and safety margins in the design of a new reactor. Firstly, detailed risk assessment criteria for I&C design were studied and identified in accordance with nuclear regulations. Secondly, different designs were appropriately modeled, and the risk insights were provided, showing the balance of safety and economy of each design. Furthermore, potential design improvements were evaluated in terms of the current risk assessment criterion. In the end, the optimal design was determined, and uncertainty analyses were performed. The results showed that all four designs analyzed in this paper were met the safety goals in terms of PSA, but each design had a different impact on the balance of risk. As the support systems of the NPP we analyzed were relatively weak, loss of off-site power and loss of service water were two main risk contributors. The common cause failure of reactor trip breakers and the sensors of containment pressure were risk-significant. After identifying the major risk factors, the I&C design team can perform subsequent optimizations in the further design based on the PSA results and achieve an optimal balance between safety and economy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2A) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jônatas Franco Campos da Mata ◽  
Amir Zacarias Mesquita

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan in 2011 has raised public fears about the actual safety of nuclear power plants in several countries. The response to this concern by government agencies and private companies has been objective and pragmatic in order to guarantee best practices in the several phases of nuclear reactors. In countries where the nucleo-electric matrix is consolidated, such as the United States, France and the United Kingdom, the safety assessment is carried out considering deterministic and probabilistic criteria. In the licensing stages of new projects, it is necessary to analyze and simulate the behavior of the nuclear power plant, when subjected to conditions that can lead to sequences of accidents. Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) is fundamental in this process, as it studies in depth the sequences of events that can lead to damage to the reactor core. Such sequences should be quantified in terms of probability of occurrence and your possible consequences, and organized through techniques such as Fault Tree Analysis and Event Tree Analysis. The present work will describe the procedures for the realization of PSA and its applicability to the assurance of the operational reliability of the nuclear reactors, as well as a brief comparative between the approaches used in some countries traditionally users of thermonuclear energy and Brazil. By means of this analysis, it can be concluded that nuclear power is increasingly reliable and safe, being able to provide the necessary tranquility for the population of the countries where it is inserted.


2011 ◽  
Vol 241 (9) ◽  
pp. 3967-3976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio César Ferreira Guimarães ◽  
Celso Marcelo Franklin Lapa ◽  
Maria de Lourdes Moreira

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