Application of probabilistic safety analysis in design and maintenance of the ABWR

Abstract

A brief history of the development of nuclear reactor in Japan is summarized in Fig. 1.1. In the 1960s, nuclear reactor technology was introduced mainly from the United States. But in this era, the capacity factor of Japanese boiling water reactors (BWRs) is low because of initial problems such as stress corrosion cracking (SCC). A program to improve the nuclear reactor performance was started. In the 1970s, phases-I and-II of this program was carried out for the purpose of improvement, standardization, and localization of conventional light water reactors (LWRs). The final stage of this program was carried out in the 1980s to develop advanced reactors (both ABWR and APWR), which had to meet the following objectives. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.