The concept of safety margins has served as a fundamental principle in the design and operation of commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs). Defined as the minimum distance between a system’s “loading” and its “capacity”, plant design and operation is predicated on ensuring an adequate safety margin for safety-significant parameters (e.g., fuel cladding temperature, containment pressure, etc.) is provided over the spectrum of anticipated plant operating, transient and accident conditions. To meet the anticipated challenges associated with extending the operational lifetimes of the current fleet of operating NPPs, the United States Department of Energy (USDOE), the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have developed a collaboration to conduct coordinated research to identify and address the technological challenges and opportunities that likely would affect the safe and economic operation of the existing NPP fleet over the postulated long-term time horizons. In this paper we describe a framework for developing and implementing a Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) approach to evaluate and manage changes in plant safety margins over long time horizons.
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17th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
July 12–16, 2009
Brussels, Belgium
Conference Sponsors:
- Nuclear Engineering Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4351-2
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization
Stephen M. Hess,
Stephen M. Hess
Electric Power Research Institute, West Chester, PA
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Nam Dinh,
Nam Dinh
Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID
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John P. Gaertner,
John P. Gaertner
Electric Power Research Institute, Charlotte, NC
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Ronaldo Szilard
Ronaldo Szilard
Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID
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Stephen M. Hess
Electric Power Research Institute, West Chester, PA
Nam Dinh
Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID
John P. Gaertner
Electric Power Research Institute, Charlotte, NC
Ronaldo Szilard
Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID
Paper No:
ICONE17-75064, pp. 11-17; 7 pages
Published Online:
February 25, 2010
Citation
Hess, SM, Dinh, N, Gaertner, JP, & Szilard, R. "Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization." Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering. Volume 1: Plant Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Modifications and Life Cycle; Component Reliability and Materials Issues; Next Generation Systems. Brussels, Belgium. July 12–16, 2009. pp. 11-17. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE17-75064
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