Efforts to progress in the harmonization of L2 PSA development and their applications in Europe: Status of activities and perspectives after the Fukushima accident

A major issue for all nuclear stakeholders is to keep the probability of circumstances that could lead to core damage as low as possible. In addition, for NPP, appropriate accident management provisions are to be implemented to limit the consequences associated with an accident.. Development and application of L2 PSA is a structured way to demonstrate that such objectives are achieved. The paper presents the efforts recently done in Europe to harmonize some best-practices in that field, from research area to risk assessment. The Fukushima Daiichi accident reiterated the importance of these activities and the need to efficiently reinforce the NPP safety based on risk assessment conclusions. New perspectives in Europe are briefly presented.