Treatment of uncertainties in reliability models

Abstract For systems in Nuclear Installations it is necessary to analyze the possible mechanisms for failure of each component, to perform probabilistic analysis for the expected rate of such failure and to aggregate the component failure logically and numerically to a prediction of the reliability of the whole system. In this process we must treat models and data associated with uncertainties of different kinds. Also subjective judgements are necessary for an estimation of these uncertainties in the models and data. Based on a system example this paper illustrates some of these aspects more detailed.