Learning outcomes

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• explain the concept of risk, use probabilistic methods for safety analysis and perform overall analyses of nuclear power plants from a man, machine and organisational (human factors) point of view,
• formulate, apply and compare the usefulness of different models for risk assessment in practical situations,
• account for the international nuclear safeguards system, describe its main components and how the components relate to each other as well as assess how safeguards instruments can be used at inspections of nuclear facilities and discuss current research in the field,
• describe the national and international systems for sharing of operational experiences and account for some classical accidents in the history of nuclear power, determine the causes of these accidents and explain their consequences, and discuss their social, financial and environmental impact,
• orally present, and discuss in a group, applications of nuclear power safety.

Content

Probabilistic safety assessment

Safety assessment includes a systematic approach to calculate risks and consequences of faults and disturbances in a technical system. Safety analyses are based on statistics of initiating events, functional faults, system faults, component faults and human errors. The safety assessment can thus give information to evaluate probabilities, error rates and consequences for the identified events or faults.

Human factors

Human factors deal with the study of the interaction between humans, their behaviour and a technical system. The view of human factors as a cause of events and faults have changed and today, analyses of graphical interfaces, process graphics, routines etc. are often parts of risk assessment in parallel to the analyses of technical components. Human factors will also be discussed from a gender perspective.

Classical nuclear events and the sharing of operational experiences

Some classical accidents in the nuclear power history are presented, e.g. Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. The events are analysed based on the dynamic processes of a nuclear reactor and on operating actions. Consequences to the operators, facilities and surrounding society are discussed as well as the systems for sharing operational experiences that have evolved both nationally and internationally.

Nuclear safeguards

Nuclear safeguards denotes the national and international system for preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons materials and techniques, generally interpreted as non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Nuclear safeguards are based on political agreements, i.e. international treaties, supported by technical means and inspections. The system comprises four basic principles, simply put; duty of characterisation, duty of restraint, duty of assurance and duty of compliance. These principles are put in place using e.g. fissile-materials accountancy, physical protection and verification. During the course, the students will learn how the components of the safeguards system relate to each other and how it is implemented. Current research regarding technical equipment for nuclear safeguards will also be presented.

Oral presentation

The students will present parts of the course content and project work to each other in seminars. Techniques for oral presentation are discussed before the seminar. In connection to each seminar, the contents of the seminar are discussed. Feedback on both the presentation technique and the presented content will be provided to the students.

Instruction

Lectures, obligatory seminars.

Assessment

Individual, written essays. Group seminars with individual oral presentations and group discussions. Written exam with problems and theory questions at the end of the course.