Evolution of PSA activities in DAE, India

Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) is an analytic method for identifying, analysing and evaluating, risk and show evidence that the public health and safety is protected. The world wide use of PSA within operating and regulating organizations is increasing. A substantial amount of effort has been applied in many countries to use PSA in a beneficial manner. In DAE, India regulatory body, viz., Atomic Energy Regulatory Body is now insisting on PSA results for licensing and renewal of licence though not in formal manner. Nuclear Power Corporation is also convinced that the results of PSA study are useful for decision making regarding design evaluation, back fitting, and technical specification modification. This talk covers evaluation of PSA activity in DAE, India right from its inception to the present state of art, giving emphasis on problems faced, data collection and analysis, modelling of human errors, and common cause failures. The talk also includes evaluation of external event PSA, viz., fire PSA, seismic PSA, and application of PSA towards development of Risk Monitor, Risk informed in-service inspection. The talk also outlines the future course of action like Dynamic Fault Tree Analysis, inclusion of ageing effects in PSA, online implementation of Risk Monitor, Software Reliability evaluation, and Passive System reliability. The areas where efforts are needed for effective utilization of PSA are also highlighted. (author)