Dear Colleagues,
Over the last 5 years, new calculation techniques, such as BDD, have been extensively studied in nuclear PSA. The concern of these studies has been to end the use of approximations: numerical approximations for which we do not know the error factors, and modeling approximations which leave out perhaps critical elements of the actual plant.
From all these investigations, some alarming issues related to large nuclear PSA models have been raised, which we feel need to be addressed as we put new calculation engines or next generation user interfaces into place:
- Quality assurance of calculations;
- Un-founded reliance on numerical approximations and truncation;
- Portability of the models between different software;
- Clarity of the models;
- Completeness of the models;
- Difficulty of different software working with the same PSA model;
- Lack of data and software backward and forward compatibility;
- No universal format for industry data.
We have approached many organizations, regulators and members of the international PSA community with the idea of discussing these issues in a workshop forum.
We had the first workshop at Kernkraftwerk Gosgen-Daeniken in April. It was a wonderful success. The first Standards Working Group met in July in Paris, and the US Workshop will be held on October 3rd in Washington DC.
And now we will present important material from the previous meetings, and new information on research and development in Japan.
Please look at the enclosed announcement. We propose that we meet on Tuesday, November, 13th and 14th at Nuclear Engineering, Ltd. (NEL) in Osaka. Please respond as soon as is possible, as space is limited.
Looking forward to seeing you at NEL,
Steve Epstein, Antoine Rauzy, and Takahiro Kuramoto.
