Recentemente, na indústria naval, a normatização por sociedades classificadoras e pela IMO (International Maritime Organization) tem apresentado uma mudança paulatina, migrando dos procedimentos prescritivos para uma estrutura regulatória baseada em risco. Tal perspectiva oferece algumas vantagens para operadores e armadores (empresas que exploram comercialmente as embarcações): 1) maior capacidade de incorporar projetos inovadores, tecnicamente superiores, a custos aceitáveis; 2) maior confiança quanto à segurança; 3) melhor entendimento de eventos de periculosidade, dos riscos enfrentados em novos projetos e de medidas de mitigação. Especificamente no setor petrolífero, a análise, a avaliação e o gerenciamento de risco são vitais, em face da potencial gravidade dos acidentes no que diz respeito à vida humana, ao meio-ambiente e ao patrimônio. Dado que a maior parte dos acidentes nesta área são motivados por fatores humanos, o propósito deste trabalho é apresentar uma metodologia e técnicas eficientes de análise de confiabilidade humana aplicáveis a esta indústria. Durante as últimas décadas, se desenvolveram várias técnicas para o estudo quantitativo da confiabilidade humana. Na década de oitenta foram desenvolvidas técnicas que modelam o sistema por meio de árvores binárias, não permitindo a representação do contexto em que as ações humanas ocorrem. Desta forma, a representação dos indivíduos, suas inter-relações e a dinâmica do sistema não podem ser bem trabalhadas pela aplicação destas técnicas. Estas questões tornaram latente a necessidade de aprimoramento dos métodos utilizados para a HRA (Human Reliability Analysis). No intuito de extinguir, ou ao menos atenuar, estas limitações alguns autores vêm propondo a modelagem do sistema por meio de Redes Bayesianas. Espera-se que a aplicação desta ferramenta consiga suprimir boa parte das deficiências na modelagem da ação humana com o uso de árvores binárias. Este trabalho apresenta uma breve descrição da aplicação de Redes Bayesianas na HRA. Além disto, apresenta a aplicação desta técnica no estudo da operação de um navio petroleiro, tendo como foco a quantificação da contribuição do fator humano em cenários de colisão. Por fim, são feitas considerações a respeito dos fatores que podem influenciar no desempenho humano e no risco de colisão. / Recently, in the naval industry, the normalization of classification societies and IMO (International Maritime Organization) has presented a gradual change, going from prescriptive procedures to a regulatory structure based on risk. That perspective offers some advantages to operators and constructors: 1) greater capacity to incorporate innovations in design, technically superiors, at acceptable cost; 2) greater confidence as to security; 3) better understanding of hazardous events, the risks faced by new projects and measures of mitigation. Specifically in the oil sector, the analyze, evaluation, and management of risk are vital, in face of the accidents severity potential in respect to human life, environment and property. Given that the greater part of the accidents on this sector is caused by human factors, the purpose of this dissertation is present a methodology and efficient techniques to HRA (Human Reliability Analysis) that can be applied in this industry. During the last decades many techniques were developed to a quantitative study of the human reliability. In the eighties were developed some techniques based in the modeling by means of binaries trees. These techniques do not consider the representation of the context in which the human actions occur. Thus, the representation of individuals, their inter-relationships and dynamics of the system cannot be better worked by the application of these techniques. These issues became the improvement of the used methods for HRA a latent need. With the aim of extinguish, or attenuate at least, these weaknesses some authors proposed the modeling of the human system by means of Bayesians Network. It is expected that with the application of this tool can be suppressed great part of the deficiencies of the human action modeling by means of binaries trees. This work presents a brief description about the application of Bayesians Network in HRA. Additionally, is presented the application of this technique in the study of an oil tanker operation, focusing in the human factor quantification in scenarios of collision. Besides, are presented some considerations about the factors that can influence the human performance and the collision risk.

Recentemente, na indústria naval, a normatização por sociedades classificadoras e pela IMO (International Maritime Organization) tem apresentado uma mudança paulatina, migrando dos procedimentos prescritivos para uma estrutura regulatória baseada em risco. Tal perspectiva oferece algumas vantagens para operadores e armadores (empresas que exploram comercialmente as embarcações): 1) maior capacidade de incorporar projetos inovadores, tecnicamente superiores, a custos aceitáveis; 2) maior confiança quanto à segurança; 3) melhor entendimento de eventos de periculosidade, dos riscos enfrentados em novos projetos e de medidas de mitigação. Especificamente no setor petrolífero, a análise, a avaliação e o gerenciamento de risco são vitais, em face da potencial gravidade dos acidentes no que diz respeito à vida humana, ao meio-ambiente e ao patrimônio. Dado que a maior parte dos acidentes nesta área são motivados por fatores humanos, o propósito deste trabalho é apresentar uma metodologia e técnicas eficientes de análise de confiabilidade humana aplicáveis a esta indústria. Durante as últimas décadas, se desenvolveram várias técnicas para o estudo quantitativo da confiabilidade humana. Na década de oitenta foram desenvolvidas técnicas que modelam o sistema por meio de árvores binárias, não permitindo a representação do contexto em que as ações humanas ocorrem. Desta forma, a representação dos indivíduos, suas inter-relações e a dinâmica do sistema não podem ser bem trabalhadas pela aplicação destas técnicas. Estas questões tornaram latente a necessidade de aprimoramento dos métodos utilizados para a HRA (Human Reliability Analysis). No intuito de extinguir, ou ao menos atenuar, estas limitações alguns autores vêm propondo a modelagem do sistema por meio de Redes Bayesianas. Espera-se que a aplicação desta ferramenta consiga suprimir boa parte das deficiências na modelagem da ação humana com o uso de árvores binárias. Este trabalho apresenta uma breve descrição da aplicação de Redes Bayesianas na HRA. Além disto, apresenta a aplicação desta técnica no estudo da operação de um navio petroleiro, tendo como foco a quantificação da contribuição do fator humano em cenários de colisão. Por fim, são feitas considerações a respeito dos fatores que podem influenciar no desempenho humano e no risco de colisão. / Recently, in the naval industry, the normalization of classification societies and IMO (International Maritime Organization) has presented a gradual change, going from prescriptive procedures to a regulatory structure based on risk. That perspective offers some advantages to operators and constructors: 1) greater capacity to incorporate innovations in design, technically superiors, at acceptable cost; 2) greater confidence as to security; 3) better understanding of hazardous events, the risks faced by new projects and measures of mitigation. Specifically in the oil sector, the analyze, evaluation, and management of risk are vital, in face of the accidents severity potential in respect to human life, environment and property. Given that the greater part of the accidents on this sector is caused by human factors, the purpose of this dissertation is present a methodology and efficient techniques to HRA (Human Reliability Analysis) that can be applied in this industry. During the last decades many techniques were developed to a quantitative study of the human reliability. In the eighties were developed some techniques based in the modeling by means of binaries trees. These techniques do not consider the representation of the context in which the human actions occur. Thus, the representation of individuals, their inter-relationships and dynamics of the system cannot be better worked by the application of these techniques. These issues became the improvement of the used methods for HRA a latent need. With the aim of extinguish, or attenuate at least, these weaknesses some authors proposed the modeling of the human system by means of Bayesians Network. It is expected that with the application of this tool can be suppressed great part of the deficiencies of the human action modeling by means of binaries trees. This work presents a brief description about the application of Bayesians Network in HRA. Additionally, is presented the application of this technique in the study of an oil tanker operation, focusing in the human factor quantification in scenarios of collision. Besides, are presented some considerations about the factors that can influence the human performance and the collision risk.

Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) is a systematic and comprehensive methodology to evaluate risks associated with a complex engineered technological entity. The information provided by PSA has been increasingly implemented for regulatory purposes but rarely used in providing information for operation and maintenance activities. As one of the key parts in PSA, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) attempts to model and analyze failure processes of engineering and biological systems. The fault trees are composed of logic diagrams that display the state of the system and are constructed using graphical design techniques. Risk Importance Measures (RIMs) are information that can be obtained from both qualitative and quantitative aspects of FTA. Components within a system can be ranked with respect to each specific criterion defined by each RIM. Through a RIM, a ranking of the components or basic events can be obtained and provide valuable information for risk-informed decision making. Various RIMs have been applied in various applications. In order to provide a thorough understanding of RIMs and interpret the results, they are categorized with respect to risk significance (RS) and safety significance (SS) in this thesis. This has also tied them into different maintenance activities. When RIMs are used for maintenance purposes, it is called risk-informed maintenance. On the other hand, the majority of work produced on the FTA method has been concentrated on failure logic diagrams restricted to the direct or implied use of AND and OR operators. Such systems are considered as coherent systems. However, the NOT logic can also contribute to the information produced by PSA. The importance analysis of non-coherent systems is rather limited, even though the field has received more and more attention over the years. The non-coherent systems introduce difficulties in both qualitative and quantitative assessment of the fault tree compared with the coherent systems. In this thesis, a set of RIMs is analyzed and investigated. The 8 commonly used RIMs (Birnbaum‘s Measure, Criticality Importance Factor, Fussell-Vesely Measure, Improvement Potential, Conditional Probability, Risk Achievement, Risk Achievement Worth, and Risk Reduction Worth) are extended to non-coherent forms. Both coherent and non-coherent forms are classified into different categories in order to assist different types of maintenance activities. The real systems such as the Steam Generator Level Control System in CANDU Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), a Gas Detection System, and the Automatic Power Control System of the experimental nuclear reactor are presented to demonstrate the application of the results as case studies. / UOIT

Safety and risk assessment are key priorities for nuclear power plants. Probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is a method for quantitative evaluation of accident risk, in particular severe nuclear core damage and the associated release of radioactive materials into the environment. The reliability and certainty of PRA have at times been questioned, especially when real-world observations have indicated that the frequency of nuclear accidents is higher than the probabilities predicted by PRA. This thesis provides a philosophical review of the epistemic uncertainties in PRA, using the Fukushima Daiichi accident of March 2011 as a case study. The thesis provides an overview of the PRA model structure, its key elements, and possible sources of uncertainty, in an attempt to understand the deviation between the real frequency of nuclear core-melt accidents and the probabilities predicted by PRA.The analyses in this thesis address several sources of epistemic uncertainty in PRA. Analyses of the PRA approach reveal the difficulty involved in covering all possible initiating events, all component and system failures, as well as their possible combinations in the risk evaluations. This difficulty represents the source of a characteristic epistemic uncertainty, referred to as completeness uncertainty. Analyses from the case study (the Fukushima Daiichi accident) illustrate this difficulty, as the PRA failed to identify a combined earthquake and tsunami, with the resultant flooding and consequent power failure and total blackout, as an initiating causal event in its logic structure.The analyses further demonstrate how insufficient experience and knowledge, as well as a lack of empirical data, lead to incorrect assumptions, which are used by the model as input parameters to estimate the probabilities of accidents. With limited availability of input data, decision-makers rely upon the subjective judgements and individual experiences of experts, which adds a further source of epistemic uncertainty to the PRA, usually referred to as input parameter uncertainty. As a typical example from the case study, the Fukushima Daiichi accident revealed that the PRA had underestimated the height of a possible tsunami. Consequently, the risk mitigation systems (e.g. the barrier seawalls) built to protect the power plant were inadequate due to incorrect input data.Poor assumptions may also result in improper modeling of failure modes and sequences in the PRA logic structure, which makes room for an additional source of epistemic uncertainty referred to as model uncertainty. For instance, the Fukushima Daiichi accident indicated insufficient backup of the power supply, because the possibility of simultaneous failure of several emergency diesel generators was assumed to be negligibly small. However, that was exactly what happened when 12 out of the 13 generators failed at the same time as a result of flooding.Furthermore, the analyses highlight the difficulty of modeling the human interventions and actions, in particular during the course of unexpected accidents, taking into account the physiological and psychological effects on the cognitive performance of humans, which result in uncertain operator interventions. This represents an additional source of epistemic uncertainty, usually referred to as uncertainty in modeling human interventions. As a result, there may be an increase in the probability of human error, characterized by a delay in making a diagnosis, formulating a response and taking action. Even this statement confirms the complexity of modelling human errors. In the case of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, lack ofvsufficient instructions for dealing with this "unexpected" accident made the coordination of operators' interventions almost impossible.Given the existence of all these sources of epistemic uncertainty, it would be reasonable to expect such a detected deviation between the real frequency of nuclear core-melt accidents and the probabilities predicted by PRA.It is, however, important to highlight that the occurrence of the Fukushima Daiichi accident could lie within the uncertainty distribution that the PRA model predicted prior to the accident. Hence, from the probabilistic point of view, the occurrence of a single unexpected accident should be interpreted with care, especially in political and commercial debates. Despite the limitations that have been highlighted in this thesis, the model still can provide valuable insights for systematic examination of safety systems, risk mitigation approaches, and strategic plans aimed at protecting the nuclear power plants against failures. Nevertheless, the PRA model does have development potentials, which deserves serious attention. The validity of calculated frequencies in PRA is restricted to the parameter under study. This validity can be improved by adding further relevant scenarios to the PRA, improving the screening approaches and collecting more input data through better collaboration between nuclear power plants world-wide. Lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident have initiated further studies aimed at covering additional scenarios. In subsequent IAEA safety report series, external hazards in multi-unit nuclear power plants have been considered. Such an action shows that PRA is a dynamic approach that needs continuous improvement toward better reliability.

There is so far no consensus on how to develop a reliability model of safety-related digitalinstrumentation and control (I&C) in a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) of a nuclear powerplant. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate different approaches to model digital protectionsystems in a PSA for a nuclear power plant. This is accomplished by the development of a fault treemodel of the digital protection system for a fictive and simplified nuclear power plant, that act as areference model to be used for evaluation of different design alternatives and modelling principles.Common cause failures and spurious actuation signals are the major contributors to scenariosresulting in a core damage. A PSA model has to be sufficiently detailed in order for this to berepresented in the results. The impact on results such as core damage frequency and importance ofminimal cut sets from different fail-safe, voting logic and signal validation designs are significant,too. To further examine the differences between I&C designs and significance of different PSAmodelling solutions, the degree of realism of the example should be increased. This rapidlyintroduces complexity to the models resulting in a model that is more difficult to review and resultsthat is more difficult to interpret and even much simplified models tend to get rather complex.

A APS (Análise Probabilística de Segurança) de instalações industriais é assunto que evoluiu com a complexidade dos sistemas. A princípio, foram desenvolvidas ferramentas e técnicas com o propósito de analisar plantas já instaladas, possibilitando a identificação de fenômenos e mecanismos de falha desconhecidos até então. Com a evolução dos estudos dos acidentes, foram desenvolvidas técnicas aplicáveis às fases pré-operacionais com o propósito de diminuir os riscos na operação. Observa-se, portanto, um bom número de técnicas ideais para analisar projetos prontos ou em fase de conclusão. O mesmo não é observado para a fase de concepção. Apesar disto, cada vez mais especialistas na área de risco propõem que as considerações de segurança são mais eficazes quando ponderadas ao longo de toda a vida dos sistemas críticos. O estudo das APS realizadas no mundo em várias indústrias ajuda a entender o consenso sobre a contribuição potencial destas análises no desenvolvimento de novos sistemas. Para explorar este potencial, é essencial a elaboração de processos e modelos prospectivos que sejam simples, quantitativos, realistas, capazes de alimentar análises no estágio de projeto e que tragam resultados que possam ser interpretados pelos profissionais envolvidos no processo decisório. Estas considerações são extensíveis à ACH (Análise de Confiabilidade Humana), i.e., poucas são as ferramentas que ponderam aspectos operacionais, em especial o desempenho humano, na fase de projeto. A reconhecida contribuição do fator humano em acidentes envolvendo sistemas complexos - por vezes atribuída à falta de ferramentas adequadas para sua consideração na fase de projeto - evidencia ainda mais esta lacuna. Neste contexto, esta tese apresenta o desenvolvimento de uma metodologia e de uma técnica para a consideração precoce da confiabilidade humana na concepção de sistemas complexos, sendo que: 1) o desenvolvimento desta metodologia primou pela facilidade de entendimento de suas etapas e resultados, i.e., procurou-se a inteligibilidade para as pessoas envolvidas no projeto, sendo especialistas em ACH ou não, e; 2) a TECHR (Technique for Early Consideration of Human Reliability) foi concebida com o propósito de desenvolver um modelo prospectivo para o desempenho humano que possa ser explorado na fase de concepção de sistemas, e se baseia no aproveitamento da opinião de especialistas em relação a sistemas que operam ou operaram nos últimos anos para obter estimativas das probabilidades dos diversos tipos de erro humano que podem ocorrer durante a execução de uma ação específica. A metodologia proposta e a TECHR resultam em um procedimento simples e capaz de produzir modelos extremamente úteis na fase de projeto, representando uma contribuição original para o estado da arte da concepção de sistemas baseada em dados incertos. / PSA (Probabilistic Safety Assessment) is an industrial plant issue that has evolved with the complexity of systems. Initially, tools and techniques have been developed with the main purpose of analyzing operational plants, enabling the identification of phenomena and fault mechanisms hitherto not highlighted. With the evolution of accidents studies, some techniques applicable to pre-operational phases were developed in order to reduce the risks in operation. Therefore, a number of techniques adequate to analyze ready or near completion designs can be found. The same is not observed for the early design phase. Despite this, more and more experts in the risk assessment field suggest that safety considerations are most effective when assessed over the whole life of critical systems. Probabilistic safety analyses performed worldwide in various industries help us understand the consensus on the potential contribution of these analyses for developing new systems. To exploit this potential, it is essential to develop processes and prospective models that are simple, quantitative, realistic, able to feed analyses at the design stage and to bring results that can be interpreted by the professionals involved in the decision making process. These considerations are extended to HRA (Human Reliability Analysis), i.e., there are few tools that consider operational aspects, especially human performance, during the design phase. The recognized contribution of the human factor in accidents involving complex systems - sometimes attributed to the lack of suitable tools for its consideration in the design phase - further highlights this gap. In this context, this thesis presents a methodology and a technique developed for the early consideration of human reliability in complex systems design, and: 1) the development of this methodology has prioritized the easy understanding of its steps and results, i.e., its intelligibility for people involved in the system design has been sought, with expertise in HRA or not, and; 2) the technique for early consideration of human reliability (TECHR) was designed for developing a prospective human performance model that can be exploited in the system design phase, and is based on the use of expert opinion in relation to systems that operate or have operated in recent years to obtain estimates of the probabilities of the various types of human error that may occur during the performance of a specific action. The proposed methodology and technique result in a simple procedure capable of producing useful models for the design phase, representing an original contribution to the state of the art of systems conception under uncertainty.

A APS (Análise Probabilística de Segurança) de instalações industriais é assunto que evoluiu com a complexidade dos sistemas. A princípio, foram desenvolvidas ferramentas e técnicas com o propósito de analisar plantas já instaladas, possibilitando a identificação de fenômenos e mecanismos de falha desconhecidos até então. Com a evolução dos estudos dos acidentes, foram desenvolvidas técnicas aplicáveis às fases pré-operacionais com o propósito de diminuir os riscos na operação. Observa-se, portanto, um bom número de técnicas ideais para analisar projetos prontos ou em fase de conclusão. O mesmo não é observado para a fase de concepção. Apesar disto, cada vez mais especialistas na área de risco propõem que as considerações de segurança são mais eficazes quando ponderadas ao longo de toda a vida dos sistemas críticos. O estudo das APS realizadas no mundo em várias indústrias ajuda a entender o consenso sobre a contribuição potencial destas análises no desenvolvimento de novos sistemas. Para explorar este potencial, é essencial a elaboração de processos e modelos prospectivos que sejam simples, quantitativos, realistas, capazes de alimentar análises no estágio de projeto e que tragam resultados que possam ser interpretados pelos profissionais envolvidos no processo decisório. Estas considerações são extensíveis à ACH (Análise de Confiabilidade Humana), i.e., poucas são as ferramentas que ponderam aspectos operacionais, em especial o desempenho humano, na fase de projeto. A reconhecida contribuição do fator humano em acidentes envolvendo sistemas complexos - por vezes atribuída à falta de ferramentas adequadas para sua consideração na fase de projeto - evidencia ainda mais esta lacuna. Neste contexto, esta tese apresenta o desenvolvimento de uma metodologia e de uma técnica para a consideração precoce da confiabilidade humana na concepção de sistemas complexos, sendo que: 1) o desenvolvimento desta metodologia primou pela facilidade de entendimento de suas etapas e resultados, i.e., procurou-se a inteligibilidade para as pessoas envolvidas no projeto, sendo especialistas em ACH ou não, e; 2) a TECHR (Technique for Early Consideration of Human Reliability) foi concebida com o propósito de desenvolver um modelo prospectivo para o desempenho humano que possa ser explorado na fase de concepção de sistemas, e se baseia no aproveitamento da opinião de especialistas em relação a sistemas que operam ou operaram nos últimos anos para obter estimativas das probabilidades dos diversos tipos de erro humano que podem ocorrer durante a execução de uma ação específica. A metodologia proposta e a TECHR resultam em um procedimento simples e capaz de produzir modelos extremamente úteis na fase de projeto, representando uma contribuição original para o estado da arte da concepção de sistemas baseada em dados incertos. / PSA (Probabilistic Safety Assessment) is an industrial plant issue that has evolved with the complexity of systems. Initially, tools and techniques have been developed with the main purpose of analyzing operational plants, enabling the identification of phenomena and fault mechanisms hitherto not highlighted. With the evolution of accidents studies, some techniques applicable to pre-operational phases were developed in order to reduce the risks in operation. Therefore, a number of techniques adequate to analyze ready or near completion designs can be found. The same is not observed for the early design phase. Despite this, more and more experts in the risk assessment field suggest that safety considerations are most effective when assessed over the whole life of critical systems. Probabilistic safety analyses performed worldwide in various industries help us understand the consensus on the potential contribution of these analyses for developing new systems. To exploit this potential, it is essential to develop processes and prospective models that are simple, quantitative, realistic, able to feed analyses at the design stage and to bring results that can be interpreted by the professionals involved in the decision making process. These considerations are extended to HRA (Human Reliability Analysis), i.e., there are few tools that consider operational aspects, especially human performance, during the design phase. The recognized contribution of the human factor in accidents involving complex systems - sometimes attributed to the lack of suitable tools for its consideration in the design phase - further highlights this gap. In this context, this thesis presents a methodology and a technique developed for the early consideration of human reliability in complex systems design, and: 1) the development of this methodology has prioritized the easy understanding of its steps and results, i.e., its intelligibility for people involved in the system design has been sought, with expertise in HRA or not, and; 2) the technique for early consideration of human reliability (TECHR) was designed for developing a prospective human performance model that can be exploited in the system design phase, and is based on the use of expert opinion in relation to systems that operate or have operated in recent years to obtain estimates of the probabilities of the various types of human error that may occur during the performance of a specific action. The proposed methodology and technique result in a simple procedure capable of producing useful models for the design phase, representing an original contribution to the state of the art of systems conception under uncertainty.

Nuclear power plays a crucial role in energy supply in the world: around 15% of the electricity generated worldwide is provided from nuclear stations avoiding around 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions. As of January 2016, 442 reactors that generated 380+ GW were in operation and 66 new reactors were under construction. The seismic design of new nuclear power plants (NPPs) has gained much interest after the high-profile Fukushima Dai-ichi accident. In the UK, a tectonically stable continental region that possesses medium-to-low seismic activity, strong earthquakes capable of jeopardising the structural integrity of NPPs, although infrequent, can still occur. Despite that no NPP has been built in Great Britain after 1995, a New Build Programme intended to build 16 GW of new nuclear capacity by 2030 is currently under way. This PhD project provides a state-of-the-art framework for seismic probabilistic safety assessment and risk control of NPPs in Northwest Europe with particular application to the British Isles. It includes three progressive levels: (i) seismic input, (ii) seismic risk analysis, and (iii) seismic risk control. For seismic input, a suitable model to rationally define inputs in the context of risk assessments is proposed. Such a model is based on the stochastic simulation of accelerograms that are compatible with seismic scenarios defined by magnitude 4 < Mw < 6.5, epicentral distance 10 km < Repi < 100 km, and different types of soil (rock, stiff soil and soft soil). It was found to be a rational approach that streamlines the simulation of accelerograms to conduct nonlinear dynamic analyses for safety assessments. The model is a function of a few variables customarily known in structural engineering projects. In terms of PGA, PGV and spectral accelerations, the simulated accelerograms were validated by GMPEs calibrated for the UK, Europe and the Middle East, and other stable continental regions. For seismic risk analysis, a straightforward and logical approach to probabilistically assess the risk of NPPs based on the stochastic simulation of accelerograms is studied. It effectively simplifies traditional approaches: for seismic inputs, it avoids the use of selecting/scaling procedures and GMPEs; for structural outputs, it does not use Monte Carlo algorithms to simulate the damage state. However, it demands more expensive computational resources as a large number of nonlinear dynamic analyses are needed. For seismic risk control, strategies to control the risk using seismic protection systems are analysed. This is based on recent experience reported elsewhere of seismically protected nuclear reactor buildings in other areas of medium-to-low seismic activity. Finally, a scenario-based incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) is proposed aimed at the generation of surfaces for unacceptable performance of NPPs as function of earthquake magnitude and distance. It was found that viscous-based devices are more efficient than hysteretic-based devices in controlling the seismic risk of NPPs in the UK. Finally, using the proposed scenario-based IDA, it was found that when considering all controlling scenarios for a representative UK nuclear site, the risk is significantly reduced ranging from 3 to 5 orders of magnitude when using viscous-based devices.

Passive safety systems are increasingly being utilized in prospective nuclear power plant designs. Indeed, the use of safety systems driven by natural phenomena might be seen as an unmitigated virtue. However, the low magnitude of the forces involved in such systems, combined with the uncertainty inherent in the factors which affect them, pose a problem in the assessment of their reliability when compared to their active counterparts. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate and apply a state-of-the-art technique in passive reliability assessment, known as the Reliability Methods of Passive Systems (RMPS) methodology, to the isolation condenser system (ICS) of the prospective BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) design. The ICS is a safety system driven by natural circulation which provides emergency core cooling, residual heat removal, and pressure control for the BWRX-300. Using RMPS to analyze the effect that uncertainties in thermal characteristics of the fuel have on ICS operation, the reliability of natural circulation was quantified with a confidence of 99%. This yielded an immeasurably small failure probability. Considering residual uncertainty, an engineering judgment assigned a failure probability of 1.00E-07. This finding was integrated into a Level 1 probabilistic safety assessment, involving analysis of initiating events, event tree analysis, and failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) of safety systems, including natural circulation. Analysis of sequences leading to core damage resulted in a core damage frequency of 1.23E-07 yr-1. / Passiva säkerhetssystem används i allt större utsträckning i innovativa kärnkraftverkskonstruktioner. Faktum är att användningen av säkerhetssystem som drivs av naturfenomen kan ses som en oförminskad dygd. Den låga storleken på de krafter som är involverade i sådana system, i kombination med den osäkerhet som är inneboende i de faktorer som påverkar dem, utgör ett problem vid bedömningen av deras tillförlitlighet jämfört med deras aktiva motsvarigheter. Därför är syftet med denna avhandling att undersöka och tillämpa en toppmodern teknik inom passiv tillförlitlighetsbedömning, känd som Reliability Methods of Passive Systems (RMPS) metodologi, på isolationskondensorsystemet (ICS) hos den potentiella BWRX-300 liten modulär reaktor (SMR) design. ICS är ett säkerhetssystem som drivs av naturlig cirkulation som ger nödkylning av kärnan, avlägsnande av restvärme och tryckkontroll för BWRX-300. Med hjälp av RMPS kvantifierades den naturliga cirkulationens tillförlitlighet med en konfidens på 99 %, vilket gav en omätligt liten sannolikhet för misslyckande. Med hänsyn till kvarvarande osäkerhet tilldelade en teknisk dom en felsannolikhet på 1.00E-07. Detta fynd integrerades i en nivå 1 probabilistisk säkerhetsbedömning, som involverade analys av initierande händelser, händelseträdsanalys och felläges- och effektanalys (FMEA) av säkerhetssystem, inklusive naturlig cirkulation. Analys av sekvenser som leder till härdskada resulterade i en härdskadafrekvens på 1,23E-07 år-1.