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Quantification of margins and uncertainties: Example analyses from reactor safety and radioactive waste disposal involving the separation of aleatory and epistemic uncertainty

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  • Helton, Jon C.
  • Johnson, Jay D.
  • Sallaberry, Cédric J.

Abstract

In 2001, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in conjunction with the national security laboratories (i.e., Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories) initiated development of a process designated quantification of margins and uncertainties (QMU) for the use of risk assessment methodologies in the certification of the reliability and safety of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. A previous presentation, “Quantification of Margins and Uncertainties: Conceptual and Computational Basis,†describes the basic ideas that underlie QMU and illustrates these ideas with two notional examples. The basic ideas and challenges that underlie NNSA's mandate for QMU are present, and have been successfully addressed, in a number of past analyses for complex systems. To provide perspective on the implementation of a requirement for QMU in the analysis of a complex system, three past analyses are presented as examples: (i) the probabilistic risk assessment carried out for the Surry Nuclear Power Station as part of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) reassessment of the risk from commercial nuclear power in the United States (i.e., the NUREG-1150 study), (ii) the performance assessment for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant carried out by the DOE in support of a successful compliance certification application to the U.S. Environmental Agency, and (iii) the performance assessment for the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, carried out by the DOE in support of a license application to the NRC. Each of the preceding analyses involved a detailed treatment of uncertainty and produced results used to establish compliance with specific numerical requirements on the performance of the system under study. As a result, these studies illustrate the determination of both margins and the uncertainty in margins in real analyses.

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  • Helton, Jon C. & Johnson, Jay D. & Sallaberry, Cédric J., 2011. "Quantification of margins and uncertainties: Example analyses from reactor safety and radioactive waste disposal involving the separation of aleatory and epistemic uncertainty," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 96(9), pages 1014-1033.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reensy:v:96:y:2011:i:9:p:1014-1033
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2011.02.012
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Helton, Jon C. & Sallaberry, Cedric J., 2009. "Conceptual basis for the definition and calculation of expected dose in performance assessments for the proposed high-level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 677-698.
    2. J. C. Helton & D. R. Anderson & M. G. Marietta & R. P. Rechard, 1997. "Performance Assessment for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: From Regulation to Calculation for 40 CFR 191.13," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 45(2), pages 157-177, April.
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    2. Helton, Jon C. & Pilch, Martin & Sallaberry, Cédric J., 2014. "Probability of loss of assured safety in systems with multiple time-dependent failure modes: Representations with aleatory and epistemic uncertainty," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 171-200.
    3. Helton, Jon C. & Brooks, Dusty M. & Sallaberry, Cédric J., 2022. "Probability of Loss of Assured Safety in Systems with Multiple Time-Dependent Failure Modes: Incorporation of Delayed Link Failure in the Presence of Aleatory Uncertainty," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    4. Helton, Jon C. & Johnson, Jay D., 2011. "Quantification of margins and uncertainties: Alternative representations of epistemic uncertainty," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 96(9), pages 1034-1052.
    5. Tang, Zhang-Chun & Zuo, Ming J. & Xiao, Ningcong, 2016. "An efficient method for evaluating the effect of input parameters on the integrity of safety systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 111-123.
    6. Cao, Jiaokun & Du, Farong & Ding, Shuiting, 2013. "Global sensitivity analysis for dynamic systems with stochastic input processes," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 106-117.
    7. Auffray, Yves & Barbillon, Pierre & Marin, Jean-Michel, 2014. "Bounding rare event probabilities in computer experiments," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 153-166.
    8. Di Maio, Francesco & Bandini, Alessandro & Zio, Enrico & Alberola, Sofia Carlos & Sanchez-Saez, Francisco & Martorell, Sebastián, 2016. "Bootstrapped-ensemble-based Sensitivity Analysis of a trace thermal-hydraulic model based on a limited number of PWR large break loca simulations," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 122-134.
    9. Helton, Jon C. & Brooks, Dusty M. & Sallaberry, Cédric J., 2020. "Property values associated with the failure of individual links in a system with multiple weak and strong links," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    10. Pasanisi, Alberto & Keller, Merlin & Parent, Eric, 2012. "Estimation of a quantity of interest in uncertainty analysis: Some help from Bayesian decision theory," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 93-101.
    11. Sarat Sivaprasad & Cameron A. MacKenzie, 2018. "The Hurwicz Decision Rule’s Relationship to Decision Making with the Triangle and Beta Distributions and Exponential Utility," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 139-153, September.
    12. Helton, Jon C. & Brooks, Dusty M. & Sallaberry, Cédric J., 2020. "Margins associated with loss of assured safety for systems with multiple weak links and strong links," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).

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