Availability study of ETRR-1 primary cooling system

• Published in: Microelectronics and reliability Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 545 - 553
• Main Authors: El Messiry, A.M., El Said, Kh.M., Gaafar, M.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.03.1994; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Exact sciences and technology; Fission nuclear power plants; Installations for energy generation and conversion: thermal and electrical energy; Africa; Egypt; Availability; Safeguard; Fault tree; Cooling system; Modeling; Research reactor; Nuclear reactor
• ISSN: 0026-2714; 1872-941X
• DOI: 10.1016/0026-2714(94)90093-0

The primary cooling system of the Egypt Test and Research Reactor Number one (ETRR-1) was considered. The system comprises different mechanical and electrical components. The system failure state was modeled using the fault tree technique, and minimal cutsets were obtained. The basic events of each cutset were highlighted. The system unavailability equation was derived using Boolean algebra. A formal reliability analysis for the test and inspection code (FRANTIC-II) was applied to the system to investigate its unavailability. The code was modified to adopt the IBM/PC of the National Center of Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control (NCNSRC) Egypt. A parametric analysis was performed to investigate the effects of the frequent test period, human error, override unavailability, probability of test-caused failure and efficiency of detected failure on the overall system unavailability. Emphasis was placed on those features specified to time-dependent unavailability analysis. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations are made regarding strategies for decreasing the system unavailability.