PSAM 16 - Paper Overview

PSAM 16 Conference Paper Overview

Welcome to the PSAM 16 Conference paper and speaker overview page.

Lead Author: Frida Olofsson Co-author(s): Anders Olsson, anders.olsson@vysusgroup.com

Challenges and lessons learned from a PSA on a spent fuel pool facility
Performing a PSA on a spent fuel pool storage facility provides new challenges but also new insights. Even though the nuclear fuel is the common subject for the risk to be evaluated, the differences compared to a traditional PSA for a nuclear power plant are several. In the spent fuel pool facility, the risk is evaluated both regarding the process of the transport containers and fuel elements handling, as well as for the long-term storage in spent fuel pools. The studied end-states and sequences depend on where in the facility the spent fuel is situated. Another of the most appearing differences from a traditional PSA is the long time windows. This issue pervades for example in the analysis of manual actions as well as when modelling mission times for systems and components. The facility has a low grade of automatization and, therefore, the importance of human actions is even more prominent. The system mission times originates from deterministic acceptance criteria. This assumption has proven to have an important impact on the analysis. Most methodologies used in the spent fuel pool PSA are developed with respect to nuclear power plants and related equipment, time windows and prevailing circumstances etc. Challenges are encountered in applying methodologies commonly used for nuclear power plants in the areas of e.g. HRA and area event analysis. The methods have consequently in some cases been modified to adapt them for this purpose. The PSA has contributed with important insights about the dominant risks at the spent fuel pool facility, for other (non-PSA) parts of the organization and has also led to actual measures regarding equipment, procedures and training.

Challenges and lessons learned from a PSA on a spent fuel pool facility

Performing a PSA on a spent fuel pool storage facility provides new challenges but also new insights. Even though the nuclear fuel is the common subject for the risk to be evaluated, the differences compared to a traditional PSA for a nuclear power plant are several. In the spent fuel pool facility, the risk is evaluated both regarding the process of the transport containers and fuel elements handling, as well as for the long-term storage in spent fuel pools. The studied end-states and sequences depend on where in the facility the spent fuel is situated. Another of the most appearing differences from a traditional PSA is the long time windows. This issue pervades for example in the analysis of manual actions as well as when modelling mission times for systems and components. The facility has a low grade of automatization and, therefore, the importance of human actions is even more prominent. The system mission times originates from deterministic acceptance criteria. This assumption has proven to have an important impact on the analysis. Most methodologies used in the spent fuel pool PSA are developed with respect to nuclear power plants and related equipment, time windows and prevailing circumstances etc. Challenges are encountered in applying methodologies commonly used for nuclear power plants in the areas of e.g. HRA and area event analysis. The methods have consequently in some cases been modified to adapt them for this purpose. The PSA has contributed with important insights about the dominant risks at the spent fuel pool facility, for other (non-PSA) parts of the organization and has also led to actual measures regarding equipment, procedures and training.

PSAM 16 Conference Paper Overview

Welcome to the PSAM 16 Conference paper and speaker overview page.

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