A Method for the Analysis of Impact Events Involving Nested Safety Systems

This paper presents an analysis model devised specifically for evaluating sequential impact damage to a space nuclear system (barrier failure and fuel release for isotopic systems and geometry changes for reactor systems) with a nested safety system design. The analysis model is a relatively simple deterministic approach using disruptive work as the measure of damage. This approach offers a logical basis for assessing the impact damage to nested safety systems from sequential impacts, for designing safety tests, for analyzing subsequent test data, and finally for use in a safety analysis. Because of the wide variety of conditions that must be considered in a complete safety analysis and the stochastic nature of the damage states, the deterministic approach is only the starting point for a complete safety analysis.