Development of System Based Code: Part 1—Reliability Target Derivation of Structures and Components

The present paper describes a new method for determining the target value of structural reliability in the framework of the System Based Code (SBC) by considering the safety point of view. In the new method, the reliability target is derived from the proposal to a quantitative safety goal that was published by the nuclear safety commission (NSC) of Japan and the quantitative safety design requirements on the core damage frequency (CDF) and the containment failure frequency (CFF) that were determined in the Fast Reactor Cycle Technology Development (FaCT) project by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), by utilizing analysis models of a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA). The present method was applied to determination of the reliability target of the structures and components which constitute the reactor cooling system in the Japanese sodium-cooled fast reactor (JSFR). The risk from the reactor is expressed with sum of combination of various elements in the PSA analysis model. Those elements include not only static failure of the structures and components. However, the present study focuses on the sequences including the static failure, and the probability of dynamic failures and human errors in those sequences is conservatively assumed as a unity. It was confirmed that the present method combined with the PSA analysis model for internal initiating events is applicable to determination of the reliability target associated with a random failure of the structures and components, and that the method related to seismic initiating events can derive the target value of the occurrence frequency at which any of the important structures and components fails due to an earthquake.