Plant availability - summary of report of the plant availability study group

About eight years ago, the UKAEA accepted the merits of a numerical expression of safety standards, i.e., relating the safety-consequence of a fault to its chance of failure, and subsequently the safety of its plants, has been extensively analysed in this way. More recently, attention has turned to the possibilties of the improvement of availability of its plants by extensions of these analyses. A particular study in this area was commissioned about two years ago. A Study Group was formed which included engineers from the Generating Boards, from Industry, and from the UKAEA, with representatives from other organisations joining from time to time. A summary is presented of the main conclusions of the final report of the Group and recommendations for further work are outlined. (U.K.)