RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF THE ELECTRICAL POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM TO SELECTED PORTIONS OF THE NUCLEAR HVAC SYSTEM

Abstract

A design requirement probability of 0.01 or less in a 4-hour period ensures that the nuclear heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system in the primary confinement areas of the Dry Transfer Facilities (DTFs) and Fuel Handling Facility (FHF) is working during a Category 1 drop event involving commercial spent nuclear fuel (CSNF) assemblies (BSC 2004a , Section 5.1.1.48). This corresponds to an hourly HVAC failure rate of 2.5E-3 per hour or less, which is contributed to by two dominant causes: equipment failure and loss of electrical power. Meeting this minimum threshold ensures that a Category 1 initiating event followed by the failure of HVAC is a Category 2 event sequence. The two causes for the loss of electrical power include the loss of offsite power and the loss of onsite power distribution. Thus, in order to meet the threshold requirement aforementioned, the failure rate of mechanical equipment, loss of offsite power, and loss of onsite power distribution must be less than or equal to 2.5E-3 per hour for the nuclear HVAC system in the primary confinement areas of the DTFs and FHF. The loss of offsite power occurs at a frequency of 1.1E-5 per hour (BSC 2004a, Section 5.1.1.48). The purpose of this analysis is to determine the probability of occurrence of the unavailability of the nuclear HVAC system in the primary confinement areas of the DTFs and FHF due to loss of electrical power. In addition, this analysis provides insights on the contribution to the unavailability of the HVAC system due to equipment failure. The scope of this analysis is limited to finding the frequency of loss of electrical power to the nuclear HVAC system in the primary confinement areas of the DTFs and FHF.