Concept and methodology for evaluating core damage frequency considering failure correlation at multi units and sites and its application

Abstract

The Tohoku earthquake (Mw9.0) occurred on March 11, 2011 and caused a large tsunami. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant with six units were overwhelmed by the tsunami and core damage occurred. Authors proposed the concept and method for evaluating core damage frequency (CDF) considering failure correlation at the multi units and sites. Based on the above method, one of authors developed the procedure for evaluating the failure correlation coefficient and response correlation coefficient between the multi components under the strong seismic motion. These method and failure correlation coefficients were applied to two different BWR units and their CDF was evaluated by seismic probabilistic risk assessment technology. Through this quantitative evaluation, the validity of the method and failure correlation coefficient was confirmed.