Basic concept of new screening method for external event PSA

Nishino, Hiroyuki  ; Kurisaka, Kenichi ; Yamano, Hidemasa   ; Sakai, Takaaki

After the TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident, the importance of developing Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) method is recognized not only for earthquakes in external events but also for broader external events. According to the external events assessment conducted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the 1980s, various external events were used to be selected by two screening methods first, and then estimated Core Damage Frequency (CDF) by the PSA method for the selected external events. However, at several nuclear power plant sites, there is a possibility to remain the too many external events that are not screened out by the above conventional screening methods because these depend on site and the feature of hazard. The purpose of this study is to propose a new screening method in addition to the conventional ones for external event PSA by focusing on failures of components for the fulfillment of CDF target value.