scholarly journals Managing Safety‐Related Disruptions: Evidence from the U.S. Nuclear Power Industry

Risk Analysis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
pp. 2197-2213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian C. Blanco ◽  
Felipe Caro ◽  
Charles J. Corbett
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Industry ◽  
Nuclear Power Industry ◽  
The U.S

The U.S. Nuclear Power Industry: Past, Present, and Possible Futures

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Jurewitz
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Power Industry ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Nuclear Power Industry ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
Generation Capacity ◽  
Ultimate Outcome ◽  
Social Confrontation ◽  
The U.S

Although the United States generates only about 20% of its total electricity from nuclear power, it has almost twice as much nuclear generation capacity as any other country. This article presents an historical overview of the U.S. nuclear power industry and the policies that have shaped it. The U.S. nuclear industry is currently at a crossroads. The total number of nuclear powerplants has been virtually constant for over a decade. Over the coming years, it seems likely that the owners of most existing plants will succeed in securing extensions of their operating licenses. The critical question is whether new nuclear capacity will be built. Although it seems likely that some utility will attempt to build a new nuclear plant within the next decade, any such attempt will encounter a degree of public opposition based on environmental and security concerns. The ultimate outcome of this social confrontation is difficult to forecast.

History of Fire Events in the U.S. Commercial Nuclear Industry

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bijan Najafi ◽  
Robert P. Kassawara ◽  
Francisco Joglar-Biloch ◽  
Yehia Khalil
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Fire Protection ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Power Industry ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Nuclear Power Industry ◽  
Events Data ◽  
The U.S

Over the past decade, interest in performance-based fire protection has increased within the nuclear industry. In support of this growing interest, in 1997 the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) developed a long-range plan to develop/improve data and tools needed to support Risk-Informed/Performance-Based fire protection. This plan calls for continued improvement in collection and use of information obtained from fire events at nuclear plants. The data collection process has the objectives of improving the insights gained from such data and reducing the uncertainty in fire risk and fire modeling methods in order to make them a more reliable basis for performance based fire protection programs. In keeping with these objectives, EPRI continues to collect, review and analyze fire events in support of the nuclear industry. EPRI collects these records in cooperation with the Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited (NEIL), by compiling public fire event reports and by direct solicitation of U.S. nuclear facilities. EPRI fire data collection project is based on the principle that the understanding of history is one of the cornerstones of improving fire protection technology and practice. Therefore, the goal has been to develop and maintain a comprehensive database of fire events with flexibility to support various aspects of fire protection engineering. With more than 1850 fire records over a period of three decades and 2400 reactor years, this is the most comprehensive database of nuclear power industry fire events in existence today. In general, the frequency of fires in the U.S. commercial nuclear industry remains constant. In few cases, e.g., transient fires and fires in BWR offgas/recombiner systems, where either increasing or decreasing trends are observed, these trends tend to slow after 1980. The key issues in improving quality of the data remain to be consistency of the recording and reporting of fire events and difficulties in collection of records. EPRI has made significant progress towards improving the quality of the fire events data through use of multiple collection methods as well as its review and verification. To date EPRI has used this data to develop a generic fire ignition frequency model for U.S. nuclear power industry (Ref. 1, 4 and 5) as well as to support other models in support of EPRI Fire Risk Methods such as a cable fire manual suppression model. EPRI will continue its effort to collect and analyze operating data to support risk informed/performance based fire safety engineering, including collection and analysis of impairment data for fire protection systems and features. This paper provides details on the collection and application of fire events to risk informed/performance based fire protection. The paper also provides valuable insights into improving both collection and use of fire events data.

Relevance of Case Studies to the U.S. Nuclear Power Industry

2003 ◽  
pp. 173-214
Author(s):  
Vicki Bier ◽  
James Joosten ◽  
David Glyer ◽  
Jennifer Tracey ◽  
Michael Welsh
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Industry ◽  
Nuclear Power Industry ◽  
The U.S

scholarly journals Online Simulation of Nuclear Power Plant Primary Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Hongyun Xie ◽  
Haixia Gu ◽  
Chao Lu ◽  
Jialin Ping
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power Plant ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Reactor Core ◽  
Power Industry ◽  
Nuclear Power Industry ◽  
Online Simulation

Real-time Simulation (RTS) has long been used in the nuclear power industry for operator training and engineering purposes. And, online simulation (OLS) is based on RTS and with connection to the plant information system to acquire the measurement data in real time for calibrating the simulation models and following plant operation, for the purpose of analyzing plant events and providing indicative signs of malfunctioning. OLS has been applied in certain industries to improve safety and efficiency. However, it is new to the nuclear power industry. A research project was initiated to implement OLS to assist operators in certain critical nuclear power plant (NPP) operations to avoid faulty conditions. OLS models were developed to simulate the reactor core physics and reactor/steam generator thermal hydraulics in real time, with boundary conditions acquired from plant information system, synchronized in real time. The OLS models then were running in parallel with recorded plant events to validate the models, and the results are presented.

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