Problems associated in using operating experience for PSA studies started at early stages of a NPP project

Turkish Electricity Authority (TEK), who will be the owner and the operator of the nuclear power plant to be built in Turkey has recognized the importance of PSA during bid evaluation and contract negotiations phase of Akkuyu-I NPP. A PSA team is established within the Division and a project entitled ''Turkish Akkuyu Probabilistic Safety Evaluation (TAPSE)'' is started jointly by Turkish Atomic Energy Authority and its research center CNAEM to perform a Level-1-PSA. During the execution of TAPSE Project several problem areas are identified where using or combining of operating experience of plants operating in other countries to TAPSE project is one of them. In this paper, problems associated with failure data collection and assessment for components, common cause failure treatment and human error data assessment are presented particularly from the view point of Turkey where there is no existing operating experience. The establishment of an internationally sponsored centralized data bank to set up a valuable data with appropriate guidelines for their correct use in PSA studies is also emphasized. (author)