Moving towards performance based fire protection standards in the nuclear industry

The need to protect safety-related systems from the effects of credible fires has long been identified. However, the ability and desirability of define and quantify 'protect' and 'credible' has been difficult. The difficulties encountered with an existing prescriptive requirement for protection of plant electrical components is used to demonstrate the engineering technologies required to apply performance-based criteria as well as the benefits to be realized from the application. The prescriptive requirement did not provide a clear statement of the objectives to be realized and did not provide a clear statement of the objectives to be realized and did not provide credible performance criteria related to a set of objectives. The method utilized for measuring the success of meeting the implied objectives is based on conditions assumed to have value which correlates to this success. There is technology available today they allows the fire protection engineering profession to use the statistical data, the historical data, current research data, and sound engineering principles together in credible methodologies for application of performance-based criteria. The fire safety standards must recognize the existence of this technology and provide the framework for its credible use