Abstract
Passive systems are fundamental for the safe development of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) technology. The accurate assessment of their reliability is crucial for their use in the nuclear industry. In this paper, we present a review of the approaches and procedures for the reliability assessment of passive systems. We complete the work by discussing the pending open issues, in particular with respect to the need of novel sensitivity analysis methods, the role of empirical modelling and the integration of passive safety systems assessment in the (static/dynamic) Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) framework.
Highlights
Passive systems are in use since the dawning of nuclear power technology
The large uncertainty associated with inadequacies of the design codes used to simulate the complex passive systems physical behavior must be addressed for the reliability assessment, because it may lead to hidden large unreliability
We review the methodological solutions to the T–H passive safety systems reliability assessment
Summary
Passive systems are in use since the dawning of nuclear power technology. They have, received a renewal of interest after the major nuclear accidents in 1979, 1986 and 2011. Should the forced circulation driven by centrifugal pumps become unavailable, the removal of the decay heat produced by the core is still allowed [6] For their reliability assessment, mathematical models are typically built [7] to describe the mathematical relationship between the passive system physical parameters influencing the NPP behavior, translated into detailed mechanistic Thermal-Hydraulic (T–H) computer codes for simulating the effects of various operational transients and accident scenarios on the system [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
