Many nuclear power plants (NPPs) may include units/reactors of the same or different types, designs or age, which are all located at one single site. Past probabilistic safety assessments (PSA) of NPPs have estimated the risk arising from damage to a single unit at a time. The risk for a site with multiple units/reactors has been determined by simply summing up or combining the risks of individual units. This simplified approach has several limitations as it ignores potentially complex interactions during a severe event at a multi-unit site, in particular from external hazards. In addition, assessing the impact of shared equipment requires a holistic view of the entire site.
This CRP will bring together experts from the Member States with water cooled reactor technologies to utilize, test and further develop their current or planned PSA methods and assumptions by conducting and comparing results of a meaningful benchmark exercise. The CRP will start in early 2018 and will be conducted over a period of four years.
CRP Overall Objectives
The main goal of this CRP is to promote international collaboration among IAEA Member States through sharing expertise and participating in the common benchmark calculations. These calculations will involve the development of Multi-Unit/Multi-Reactor-Type PSA (MUPSA), based on single-unit PSA available in Member States. The insights gained from the exercise may identify technology solutions to reduce those risks that are specific to multi-unit sites.
Specific Research Objectives
(1) Successfully complete the benchmark exercises and document lessons learned.
(2) Develop best practice guidance for conducting Level 1&2 multi-unit PSAs.
(3) Identify main risk contributors that delineate multi-unit risk from single-unit risks.
How to join the CRP?
Please submit your Proposal for Research Contract or Agreement by 15 December 2017 directly to the IAEA’s Research Contracts Administration Section, using the form templates on the CRA pages. For further information related to this CRP, potential applicants can contact the Project Officers: Matthias Krause and Tatjana Jevremovic, Nuclear Power Technology Development Section, Division of Nuclear Power, Department of Nuclear Energy, IAEA.