Procedures and applications to enlarge the level 1+ PSA to internal fires in German nuclear power plants

Abstract

Investigations have shown that the consequences from fires in nuclear power plants can be significant. Methodologies considering fire in probabilistic safety analyses have been evolving in the last few years. In order to provide a basis for further discussions on benefits and limits of such an analysis in Germany, current methods are investigated. As a result a qualitative screening process is proposed to identify critical fire zones followed by a quantitative event tree analysis in which the fire caused frequency of initiating events and different core damage states will be determined. The models and data proposed for a probabilistic fire risk analysis have been successfully applied in complete and partial fire risk assessments in German nuclear power plants.