Forging a New Nuclear Safety Construct
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Forging a New Nuclear Safety Construct The ASME Presidential Task Force on Response to Japan Nuclear Power Plant Events June 2012 Forging a New Nuclear Safety Construct Prepared by: The ASME Presidential Task Force on Response to Japan Nuclear Power Plant Events Date of Issuance: June 14, 2012 This Technical Report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by ASME. Neither ASME, the authors, nor others involved in the preparation or review of this Report, nor any of their respective employees, members or persons acting on their behalf (i) makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product or process disclosed, or (ii) represents that its use would not infringe upon privately owned rights. ASME does not ―approve,‖ ―rate,‖ or ―endorse‖ any item, construction, proprietary device or activity. 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The American Society of Mechanical Engineers Three Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990 ISBN No. 978-0-7918-3435-0 Copyright © 2012 by THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS All Rights Reserved Forging a New Nuclear Safety Construct TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword .............................................................................................................................................. vii ASME Presidential Task Force Members ............................................................................................. ix Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... x 1 BACKGROUND, SCOPE, AND NEW DIRECTION .................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 ASME Task Force on Response to Japan Nuclear Power Events ............................................. 2 1.3 The Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Accident ............................................................................... 2 1.4 The Accident‘s Outcome ........................................................................................................... 3 1.5 Key Issues and Scope of Work .................................................................................................. 4 1.6 A New Nuclear Safety Construct .............................................................................................. 5 2 AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON NUCLEAR SAFETY ..................................................... 8 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Life Cycle of Complex Technologies ........................................................................................ 8 2.2.1 A Textbook Example: Boiler and Pressure Vessel Technology [9][10] ...................... 8 2.2.2 Other Non-Nuclear Examples .................................................................................... 10 2.3 A Half-Century of Nuclear Experience ................................................................................... 11 2.4 Nuclear Plant Safety ................................................................................................................ 12 2.5 Acting on Nuclear Lessons Learned ........................................................................................ 16 2.6 Summary Comments ............................................................................................................... 17 3 GOING BEYOND THE DESIGN BASIS .................................................................................... 18 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 18 3.2 How Designs Have Been Established Up to Now ................................................................... 19 3.2.1 The Design Basis ........................................................................................................ 19 3.2.2 Defense-In-Depth ....................................................................................................... 23 3.2.3 Deterministic Approach to Achieve Defense-In-Depth ............................................. 24 3.2.4 Probabilistic Approach to Achieve Defense-In-Depth ............................................... 25 3.3 How Designs Might Change to Reflect Lessons Learned from Fukushima Dai-ichi – The Emergent Safety Construct ...................................................................................................... 28 3.4 Designing New Nuclear Power Plants .................................................................................... 30 3.5 Summary Comments ............................................................................................................... 30 4 ACCIDENT PREVENTION AND CORE COOLING: THE PRINCIPAL SAFETY STRATEGY AND THE OVERRIDING SAFETY FUNCTION ................................................. 32 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 32 4.2 Growing Recognition of Core Cooling as the Overriding Safety Function ............................ 32 4.3 Insights on Core Cooling from the 1975 Reactor Safety Study .............................................. 36 4.4 Insights on Core Cooling from the TMI-2 Accident ............................................................... 36 4.5 Insights on Core Cooling from the Events of September 11, 2001 ......................................... 37 4.6 Insights on Core Cooling from the Fukushima Accident ........................................................ 37 4.7 Protection from Rare Yet Credible Events .............................................................................. 38 iii Forging a New Nuclear Safety Construct 4.8 Summary Comments ................................................................................................................ 38 5 MANAGING THE UNEXPECTED – HUMAN PERFORMANCE ............................................ 40 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 40 5.1.1 Traditional Approaches to Human Performance ........................................................ 40 5.1.2 Responsibility, Accountability and Authority for Decision-Making in a Crisis ......... 41 5.1.3 Organizational Human Performance ........................................................................... 41 5.1.4 Organizational Failures ............................................................................................... 42 5.2 Human Performance in Nuclear Power Plant Accidents ......................................................... 43 5.3 Human Performance Lessons from Fukushima ....................................................................... 44 5.4 Summary Comments ................................................................................................................ 46 6 MANAGING ALL RISKS ............................................................................................................. 47 6.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 47 6.2 Defining Accident Management .............................................................................................. 47 6.3 History of Accident Management ............................................................................................ 48 6.4 Accident Management at Fukushima ....................................................................................... 49 6.4.1 Multi-Faceted Disaster ................................................................................................ 49 6.4.2 Accident Measures Against a Severe Tsunami ........................................................... 50 6.4.3 Plant Conditions .......................................................................................................... 50 6.5 Lessons in Accident Management from Fukushima ...............................................................