A study on the effects of ESFAS STI modification on the unavailability of ESF actuated components

Abstract

The nuclear industry has made so great efforts to attain safe and economically viable Nuclear Power Plants all over the world. Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) applications are required now more than ever in order to operate Nuclear Power Plants. In this paper, the unavailability model of Engineered Safety Feature (ESF) actuated components, which is part of the Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant (KSNPP) PSA model, is used to analyze the effects of Surveillance Test Interval (STI) extension of Engineered Safety Feature Actuation System (ESFAS) on the unavailability of the ESF actuated components. To develop a more accurate and realistic PSA model, the loop controller modules of Plant Control System (PCS) are also modeled on the KSNPP PSA model. The fault tree developed by each ESF actuated component includes the component failure, ESFAS signal failure, and loop controller module failure of PCS. When the ESFAS STI is extended from one month to three months, the unavailability of ESF actuated components partially increased by 10%. This shows the STI extension of ESFAS has minor effects on the unavailability of the ESF actuated components. The effects of ESFAS STI extension of KSNPP on the unavailability of the ESF actuated components as well as Core Damage Frequency (CDF) and Large Early Release Frequency (LERF) is less than expected. That result indirectly indicates that the ESFAS in KSNPP is designed well enough to extend the ESFAS STI.