Systematic Reliability Target Allocation Methodology for Advanced Non-Light-Water Reactors
Authors
PrimaryMostafa Hamza— X-energy · mmhamza@x-energy.com
Co-authorKarl N. Fleming— KNF Consulting Services LLC · karlfleming@comcast.net
Co-authorjbeal@x-energy.com— jbeal@x-energy.com Edit Profile Co-authorHuafei Liao— X-energy · hliao@x-energy.com
Co-authoranigh@x-energy.com— anigh@x-energy.com Edit Profile The risk-informed performance-based technology inclusive guidance to develop the licensing basis for non-light-water reactors developed in NEI 18-04 lays the proposes a systematic process to select the safety classification of Structures, Systems, and Components (SSC). The process includes developing the design requirements and special treatments associated with Safety-Related (SR) and Non-Safety-Related with Special Treatments (NSRST) SSCs. Developing these design requirements requires the identification and quantification of capability and reliability targets associated with those SSCs. However, it is up to the licensee to develop their own methodology to systematically identify and quantify such targets. Hence, this paper presents the systematic methodology developed by X-energy to quantify the reliability targets associated with SR and NSRST SSCs. The allocation methodology employs a hierarchical top-down decomposition strategy that systematically translates Licensing Basis Event (LBE) frequency limits into function-level, system-level, and component-level reliability targets. The methodology synthesizes information from probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) models, safety analyses, and required safety function documentation to construct logical fault tree representations that capture the relationship between higher-level safety objectives and lower-level component performance requirements. Also, it explicitly addresses shared systems and support systems across multiple safety functions, implements importance measure-based weighting to prioritize high-contribution components, and accounts for varying system configurations arising from different event sequence success criteria. Moreover, this paper presents some of the key limitations identified in this methodology that motivate future improvement endeavors. This work represents a first-of-a-kind systematic approach to reliability target allocation for advanced non-light water reactors, establishing a framework that ensures systematic and rigorous target identification while maintaining the necessary design flexibility needed during different design stages.
✅Status: The abstract has been accepted!
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