Probabilistic failure analysis of nuclear piping with empirical study of Taiwan's BWR plants

To ensure safety and estimate the risk of nuclear piping containing cracks, methods for probabilistic failure analysis in conjunction with deterministic structural integrity analysis are introduced in the present paper. Particular emphasis is placed on their application to cases which have occurred or which may occur in Taiwan's BWR power plants. A numerical example indicates that the recorded local crack data can best be fitted by a lognormal probability density function. It also shows that the proposed analytical methods give reasonable results compatible with those obtained from running the well-known PRAISE code. One of the analytical methods is then used in conjunction with the deterministic analysis for a particular case study. Several conclusions are drawn for both the probabilistic and deterministic analyses.