INSIGHTS AND COMPARISONS OF THE LEVEL-2 RESULTS OF RECENT PROBABILISTIC SAFETY ANALYSES

Observations and insights based on the review of a number of recent le vel-2 probabilistic safety analyses (PSAs) and individual plant examin ations (IPEs) are provided. Observations and comparisons are made rega rding plant and containment design characteristics, methods for the an alysis of containment response to severe accident loads, modeling of t he uncertain phenomenological processes impacting containment response , accident progression and containment analysis, source term calculati on, and uncertainty analysis. Insights are obtained which attempt to r elate the various plant and containment design characteristics to expe cted containment performance, though these relationships can often be obscured by the large inherent uncertainties associated with quantific ation of most level-2 PSA issues.