Probabilistic safety assessment of Koeberg spent fuel pool

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.