National Technical Reports Library

The National Technical Information Service acquires, indexes, abstracts, and archives the largest collection of U.S. government-sponsored technical reports in existence. The NTRL offers online, free and open access to these authenticated government technical reports. Technical reports and documents in its repository may be available online for free either from the issuing federal agency, the U.S. Government Publishing Office’s Federal Digital System website, or through search engines.

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Nuclear Energy Research Initiative. Risk Informed Assessment of Regulatory and Design Requirements for Future Nuclear Power Plants.

DE2004823388

Publication Date	2003
Page Count	54
Abstract	OAK-B135 Research under this project addresses the barriers to long term use of nuclear-generated electricity in the United States. It was agreed that a very basic and significant change to the current method of design and regulation was needed. That is, it was believed that the cost reduction goal could not be met by fixing the current system (i.e., an evolutionary approach) and a new, more advanced approach for this project would be needed. It is believed that a completely new design and regulatory process would have to be developed--a 'clean sheet of paper' approach. This new approach would start with risk-based methods, would establish probabilistic design criteria, and would implement defense-in-depth only when necessary (1) to meet public policy issues (e.g., use of a containment building no matter how low the probability of a large release is) and (2) to address uncertainties in probabilistic methods and equipment performance. This new approach is significantly different from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) current risk-informed program for operating plants. For our new approach, risk-based methods are the primary means for assuring plant safety, whereas in the NRC's current approach, defense-in-depth remains the primary means of assuring safety.
Keywords	Nuclear power plants Regulatory requirements Design requirements Accidents Containment buildings Design basis accidents Electricity Performance Probability Public policy Recommendations Regulations Reliability Ruptures Safety Risk based methods Administrative procedures Risk informed assessments
Source Agency	Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee
Corporate Authors	Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Document Type	Technical Report
Title Note	Final Technical Report.
NTIS Issue Number	200503

Nuclear Energy Research Initiative. Risk Informed Assessment of Regulatory and Design Requirements for Future Nuclear Power Plants.

Nuclear Energy Research Initiative. Risk Informed Assessment of Regulatory and Design Requirements for Future Nuclear Power Plants.
DE2004823388

Publication Date	2003
Page Count	54
Abstract	OAK-B135 Research under this project addresses the barriers to long term use of nuclear-generated electricity in the United States. It was agreed that a very basic and significant change to the current method of design and regulation was needed. That is, it was believed that the cost reduction goal could not be met by fixing the current system (i.e., an evolutionary approach) and a new, more advanced approach for this project would be needed. It is believed that a completely new design and regulatory process would have to be developed--a 'clean sheet of paper' approach. This new approach would start with risk-based methods, would establish probabilistic design criteria, and would implement defense-in-depth only when necessary (1) to meet public policy issues (e.g., use of a containment building no matter how low the probability of a large release is) and (2) to address uncertainties in probabilistic methods and equipment performance. This new approach is significantly different from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) current risk-informed program for operating plants. For our new approach, risk-based methods are the primary means for assuring plant safety, whereas in the NRC's current approach, defense-in-depth remains the primary means of assuring safety.
Keywords	Nuclear power plants Regulatory requirements Design requirements Accidents Containment buildings Design basis accidents Electricity Performance Probability Public policy Recommendations Regulations Reliability Ruptures Safety Risk based methods Administrative procedures Risk informed assessments
Source Agency	Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee
Corporate Authors	Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Document Type	Technical Report
Title Note	Final Technical Report.
NTIS Issue Number	200503