Development of reliability and probabilistic safety assessment program RiskA

• Published in: Annals of nuclear energy 2015-09, Vol.83, p.316-321
• Main Author: Wu, Yican
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Assessments; Event tree; Fault tree; Fault tree analysis; Mathematical models; Nuclear engineering; Nuclear power generation; Nuclear safety; Probabilistic methods; Probabilistic safety assessment; Probability theory; RiskA; Zero-suppressed binary decision diagram
• ISSN: 0306-4549; 1873-2100
• DOI: 10.1016/j.anucene.2015.03.020

•There are four parts in the structure of RiskA. User input part lets users input the PSA model and some necessary data by GUI or model transformation tool. In calculation engine part, fault tree analysis, event tree analysis, uncertainty analysis, sensitivity analysis, importance analysis and failure mode and effects analysis are supplied. User output part outputs the analysis results, user customized reports and some other data. The last part includes reliability database, some other common tools and help documents.•RiskA has several advanced features. Extensible framework makes it easy to add any new functions, making RiskA to be a large platform of reliability and probabilistic safety assessment. It is very fast to analysis fault tree in RiskA because many advanced algorithm improvement were made. Many model formats can be imported and exported, which made the PSA model in the commercial software can be easily transformed to adapt RiskA platform. Web-based co-modeling let several users in different places work together whenever they are online.•The comparison between RiskA and other mature PSA codes (e.g. CAFTA, RiskSpectrum, XFTA) has demonstrated that the calculation and analysis of RiskA is correct and efficient. Based on the development of this code package, many applications of safety and reliability analysis of some research reactors and nuclear power plants were performed. The development of RiskA appears to be of realistic and potential value for academic research and practical operation safety management of nuclear power plants in China and abroad. PSA (probabilistic safety assessment) software, the indispensable tool in nuclear safety assessment, has been widely used. An integrated reliability and PSA program named RiskA has been developed by FDS Team. RiskA supplies several standard PSA modules including fault tree analysis, event tree analysis, uncertainty analysis, failure mode and effect analysis and reliability database, etc. RiskA has several advanced features such as extensible framework, fast fault tree analysis, multiple models formats support and web-based co-modeling. Not only the overview of the architecture and basic functions of RiskA, but also the challenges and solutions in the development procedure of RiskA were introduced. The comparison between RiskA and other popular PSA codes has demonstrated that the calculation and analysis of RiskA is more accurate and efficient. Based on the development of this code package, many appl