PRA-Based SMA: the First Tool toward a Risk-Informed Approach to the Seismic Design of the IRIS

Abstract

International Reactor Innovative and Secure (IRIS) is an advanced, modular, medium-power PWR with an integral primary system layout. As part of the “safety-by-design_” philosophy that inspired the project from the very beginning, a risk-informed approach to its design phase is being adopted and a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is being used as an active tool in pursuing an advanced level of safety. Within this framework, a preliminary PRA-based seismic margin assessment (SMA) has been conducted to assess the ability of the IRIS standard design to respond to seismic events. A high confidence of low probability of failure at the core damage sequence level and then at the entire plant level is the primary result of the SMA model; in the end, it will have to ensure that IRIS can withstand the review-level earthquake of 0.5 g which is consistent with the upper bin level of the NUREG/CR-4334.1) In this preliminary phase of its development, in which the core of the quantitative data is critically extracted from the SMA of other PWR designs, the IRIS SMA model can be seen as a first step toward the development of an extensive seismic PRA model.