Technical aspects of nuclear power plant reliability and safety

A nuclear power plant, with all its components, may be considered a system whose purpose is to produce electrical energy. In this paper a systems approach will be used to provide a framework for the comprehensive analysis of the problem of nuclear power plant safety. The principles of the systems approach may be conceived as follows: (1) the system is composed of elements; (2) the elements of the system are interconnected, and (3) the elements influence one another. On the basis of these principles, two major goals of one procedure of analysis, which may be called 'systemization' may be outlined: first, identification of the system and decomposition of the system into elements; second, identification of the connections between elements and the character of these connections. (author)