Probabilistic Safety Assessment of WWER440 Reactors

The aim of this book is to summarize probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) of nuclear power plants (NPPs), and to demonstrate that NPPs can be considered a safe method of producing energy, even in light of the Fukushima accident. The book examines level 1 and 2 full power, low power and shutdown probabilistic safety assessment of WWER440 reactors, and summarizes the author s experience gained during the last 35 years. It provides useful examples taken from PSA training courses delivered by the author and organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Such training courses were organised in Argonne National Laboratory (Chicago, IL, USA), Abdus Salaam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste, Italy) in Malaysia, Vietnam and Jordan to support experts from developing countries.§§The role of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for NPPs (nuclear power plants) is an estimation of the risks in absolute terms and in comparison with other risks of the technical and the natural world. Plant-specific PSAs are being prepared for the NPPs and being applied for detection of weaknesses, design improvement and backfitting, incident analysis, accident management, emergency preparedness, prioritization of research & development and support of regulatory activities.§§There are three levels of PSA, being performed for full power and low power operation and shutdown operating modes of the plant: Level 1 PSA, Level 2 PSA and Level 3 PSA. The nuclear regulatory authorities do not require the level 3 PSA for NPPs in the member countries of the European Union. So, only limited number of NPPs has available the level 3 PSA in Europe. However, in the light of the Fukushima accident the performance of such analyses is strongly recommended in the future. This book is intended for professionals working in the nuclear industry, and researchers and students interested in nuclear research.§§