Insights and comparisons of the level-2 results of recent probabilistic safety analyses Original Research Article

Observations and insights based on the review of a number of recent level-2 probabilistic safety analyses (PSAs) and individual plant examinations (IPEs) are provided. Observations and comparisons are made regarding plant and containment design characteristics, methods for the analysis of containment response to severe accident loads, modeling of the uncertain phenomenological processes impacting containment response, accident progression and containment analysis, source term calculation, and uncertainty analysis. Insights are obtained which attempt to relate the various plant and containment design characteristics to expected containment performance, though these relationships can often be obscured by the large inherent uncertainties associated with quantification of most level-2 PSA issues.