Development of the Reliability Assurance Program in a Brazilian nuclear power plant subsidized by a Reliability, Availability and Maintainability Model

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to present a methodology for the development of a Reliability Assurance Program (RAP) specific to a PWR experimental nuclear installation, through the analysis of the installation and the development of a preliminary RAP subsidized by a Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) model. The study of an evaluation was carried out in the long-term decay heat removal of the studied experimental plant, whose data were used for application of the RAP. The necessary steps for applying the developed RAP are followed, using the data from the assessment of the studied plant, resulting in a list of components of significant risk for the Program, and in the following steps of sending the list to the experts panel, ranking of SSCs by the panel and development of the final list of significant risk SSCs for using the list in the optimization of the plant. The RAP subsidized by a RAM model will be able to work with the logical relationships between each component of the plant for their effects on energy generation and with the quantitative prediction of the magnitude of each contributor to the occurrence of high-level events, and the developed methodology can be applicable throughout the experimental plant. In this way, it will be possible to implement the RAP in the plant, which will provide a structured way to meet the regulatory requirements for its licensing. Also, it will be possible to complement the plant safety analysis report, which must contain the RAP.