Abstract
Probabilistic safety analysis (PSA) has played an important role in the safety analysis in the field of nuclear power plant, and it could be the development direction of future safety analysis in the field of non-reactor nuclear fuel cycle front-end facilities. In order to promote the PSA in the field of non-reactor nuclear fuel cycle front-end facilities in China, it is necessary to carry out study on the failure frequency of some common equipment used in the non-reactor nuclear fuel cycle front-end facilities. The valve is a kind of quite common equipment used in the non-reactor nuclear fuel cycle front-end facilities to control the transport of various kinds of materials. Based on the failure frequency of the valve collected and calculated in the field of nuclear power plants in the United States of America, the field of the chemical industry in the United States of America and the field of nuclear power plants in China as well, comparison and assessment of the failure modes and failure frequencies of different types of the valve were carried out, and suggestions for the assignment of the failure frequency of the valve in the field of non-reactor nuclear fuel cycle front-end facilities in China were proposed. The study results show that, the failure frequency of the valve in the field of nuclear power plants in the United States of America, the field of the chemical industry in the United States of America and the field of nuclear power plants in China has a high consistency, and the data of the failure frequency of the valve in these three fields could be used as reference for the PSA work in the field of non-reactor nuclear fuel cycle front-end facilities in China; besides, it is necessary to start the raw data sampling and statistical work for the failure frequency calculation of the valve as early as possible in Chinese non-reactor nuclear fuel cycle front-end facilities, so as to obtain the failure frequency and confidence interval of the valve which is suitable for Chinese nuclear chemical engineering practice.
