Research and development of probabilistic risk assessment methodology for combination event of low temperature and snow

Abstract

The objective of this study is to develop probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) methodology for combination event of low temperature and snow by focusing on decay heat removal system (DHRS) of sodium-cooled fast reactor. For this combination event, annual excess probability depending on the hazard intensity was statistically estimated based on the meteorological data. Event tree was developed by considering the impact of low temperature and snow on DHRS: e.g., plug at the air intake of ultimate heat sink and of emergency diesel generator and unopenable door for access route due to accumulated snow, failure of air intake filter due to deposited snow, possibility of freezing of cooling circuits. Recovery actions (i.e., snow removal and filter replacement) were considered in the event tree. By using annual excess probability and failure probabilities, the event tree was quantified and the quantified event tree showed that dominant core damage sequence is loss of access route for snow removal against the combination event at daily snowfall depth of 3m/day continued during 24h. When the access route is secured for all hazard intensity assumed this paper, it was showed that core damage frequency decreases about 1/10 times and securement of the access route has significant sensitivity to the core damage frequency.