Fuzzy uncertainty modeling applied to AP1000 nuclear power plant LOCA

This article presents an uncertainty modeling study using a fuzzy approach applied to the Westinghouse advanced nuclear reactor. The AP1000 Westinghouse Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is provided of passive safety systems, based on thermo physics phenomenon, that require no operating actions, soon after an incident has been detected. The use of advanced passive safety systems in NPP has limited operational experience. As it occurs in any reliability study, statistically non-significant events report introduces a significant uncertainty level about the failure rates and basic events probabilities used on the fault tree analysis (FTA). In order to model this uncertainty, a fuzzy approach was employed to reliability analysis of the AP1000 large break Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA). The final results have revealed that the proposed approach may be successfully applied to modeling of uncertainties in safety studies.

Research highlights
► This article presents an uncertainty modelling study using a fuzzy approach.
► The AP1000 Westinghouse NPP was used and it is provided of passive safety systems.
► The use of advanced passive safety systems in NPP has limited operational experience.
► Failure rates and basic events probabilities used on the fault tree analysis.
► Fuzzy uncertainty approach was employed to reliability of the AP1000 large LOCA.