Role of Deterministic Design Safety Criteria in Assuring Safety of Generation IV Reactors

In the nuclear power community, deterministic design safety criteria have been used as a major means for assuring safety of nuclear power plants, e.g., light water reactors (LWRs). However, as a result of considerable advances in the quantitative risk analysis technique, such as Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA), risk-informed approaches are increasingly applied together with some of the deterministic approaches that are still considered valid. In this paper, the various deterministic approaches that have played an important role in ensuring nuclear power safety are critically reviewed to shed light to the necessary characteristics of the desirable design safety criteria especially with regard to advanced reactors such as Generation IV reactors that have great potential to further enhance the economic and safe production of nuclear power.© 2009 ASME