Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Station Blackouts in Nuclear Power Plants

George-Williams, H ORCID: 0000-0002-9316-3911, Lee, M and Patelli, E ORCID: 0000-0002-5007-7247 (2018) Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Station Blackouts in Nuclear Power Plants. IEEE Transactions on Reliability.

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Abstract

IEEE Adequate ac power is required for decay heat removal in nuclear power plants. Station blackout (SBO) accidents, therefore, are a very critical phenomenon to their safety. Though designed to cope with these incidents, nuclear power plants can only do so for a limited time, without risking core damage and possible catastrophe. Their impact on a plant's safety are determined by their frequency and duration, which quantities, currently, are computed via a static fault tree analysis that deteriorates in applicability with increasing system size and complexity. This paper proposes a novel alternative framework based on a hybrid of Monte Carlo methods, multistate modeling, and network theory. The intuitive framework, which is applicable to a variety of SBOs problems, can provide a complete insight into their risks. Most importantly, its underlying modeling principles are generic, and, therefore, applicable to non-nuclear system reliability problems, as well. When applied to the Maanshan nuclear power plant in Taiwan, the results validate the framework as a rational decision-support tool in the mitigation and prevention of SBOs.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	(c) 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	18 May 2018 10:09
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 06:33
DOI:	10.1109/TR.2018.2824620
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3021453