A PROBABILISTIC RISK ASSESSMENT-RELATED METHODOLOGY TO SUPPORT PERFORMANCE-BASED REGULATION WITHIN THE NUCLEAR-POWER INDUSTRY

Maintenance and inspection costs at nuclear power plants consume a lar ge portion of a utility's resources. The stresses of commercial compet ition make better resource allocation for such procedures vital. A nuc lear power plant's probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is an excellent source of information about the safety importance of various plant sy stems, structures, and components. As both the nuclear power industry and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission begin to focus attention on the use of performance-based regulation, if is important to find how best to put a nuclear power plant's PRA to work in prioritizing mainte nance and inspection resources. In light of these concerns, two ratios were developed to compare the risk significance of individual compone nts to the amount of plant staff time, or burden, associated with insp ecting the component. These risk-to-burden ratios point out existing d isparities between inspection practices and safety concerns. These rat ios can be used to develop new inspection schedules constituting a mor e equitable risk-to-burden distribution.