Abstract:
The effective management of spent fuel pool (SFP) safety has been raised as one of the
emerging issues to further enhance nuclear installation safety after the Fukushima accident on March
11, 2011. SFP safety-related issues have been mainly focused on (a) controlling the configuration of
the fuel assemblies in the pool with no loss of pool coolants, and (b) ensuring adequate pool storage
space to prevent fuel criticality owing to chain reactions of the fission products and the ability for
neutron absorption to keep the fuel cool. In support of regulatory functions, the Centre for Nuclear
Safety and Security (CNSS) seeks to perform confirmatory analysis for all potential accident scenarios
that may occur in the Koeberg nuclear power plant SFP. Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) was
done using the Systems Analysis Program for Hands-On Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE)
computer code. We present preliminary PSA results of initiating events that lead to boiling and cause
fuel uncovering, resulting in possible fuel damage in the Koeberg nuclear power plant SFP.
