Databases of the Spanish nuclear power plant for supporting risk analysis

Safe, reliable and economic operation of a nuclear power plant requires that system and component performance remains within the limits for which they have been designed. New projects and activities appear within the Nuclear Industry with the purpose of improving availability and safety of the plants. A characteristic common to all these projects is the need to easily retrieve and handle information in order to carry out different risk assessments. These evaluations are normally accomplished by applying more or less complex methodologies on the basis of plant specific data(availability and reliability) and comparing these data with industry data or generic data. Since 1989, the Spanish Nuclear Industry has managed an information collection system (DACNE) that stores data for supporting safety analysis. The DACNE system includes two main data bases, an Operating Event Database and a Reliability Component Data Base. This technical paper describes database designs, operations and uses: probabilistic safety assessments, effectiveness of maintenance activities in safety related systems