The Centralized Reliability Data Organization (CREDO); an Advanced Nuclear Reactor Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability Data Bank and Data Analysis Center

Abstract

The Centralized Reliability Data Organization (CREDO) is a data bank and data analysis center, which since 1985 has been jointly sponsored by the US Department of Energy’s (US DOE’s) Office of Technology Support Programs and Japan’s Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (PNC). It focuses on reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) data for components (e.g. valves, pumps, etc.) operating in advanced nuclear reactor facilities. As originally intended, the purpose of the CREDO system was to provide a centralized source of accurate, up-to-date data and information for use in RAM analyses necessary for meeting DOE’s data needs in the areas of advanced reactor safety assessments, design and licensing. In particular, creation of the CREDO system was considered an essential element needed to fulfill the DOE Breeder Reactor Safety Program’s commitment of’identifying and exploiting areas in which probabilistic methods can be developed and used in making reactor safety Research and Development (R&D) choices and optimizing designs of safety systems’.1