Preliminary Reliability Analysis of Molten Salt Reactor Experiment Freeze Valves

摘要

In contrast to the use of Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) for Light Water Reactors (LWRs), there have been few applications of this method to develop the safety case for advanced reactor designs with limited to no commercial operating experience. The integration of appropriate risk assessment methods into the design process can provide valuable safety insights and give feedback to designers early in the process when changes are less costly to make. Also, early conversations regarding the safely assessment approach for advanced reactors could reduce the uncertainty surrounding licensing these reactor designs, benefitting developers and regulators. Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) methodologies have been shown to flexibly and comprehensively identify significant hazards and to generate outputs that can support the construction of fault trees and event trees to be used in the quantitative PRA activities. Use of PHA methods in this context is consistent with approaches endorsed by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the draft ASME/ANS PRA Standard for Advanced Non-LWR Nuclear Power Plants. Furthermore, this strategy is consistent with international safety-in-design approaches, such as the Generation IV (GEN IV) International Forum's Integrated Safety Assessment Methodology.6