System reliability engineering methodology: a discussion of the state of the art

The system reliability engineering methodology that is in general use for nuclear systems applications is discussed. No effort is made to address the present state of theoretical development; the approaches covered are those which have been tested by extensive application. Since nuclear systems reliability engineering frequently involves too much information for manual processing techniques, this article lists some of the available computer programs that can be used to provide input to the engineering effort. Also, several theoretical problems are presented that can result in erroneous conclusions and recommendations when certain analysis procedures are used.