Analysis of the Component Event Data Bank (CEDB) of the European Reliability Data System (ERDS): General Lines of Investigation and Objectives

Abstract

The European Reliability Data System (ERDS), developed at the JRC-Ispra, is aimed at the collection, organization and dissemination, at the European level, of information on operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Its main objective is the promotion of safety; namely, the improvement of operational safety and the supply to safety analysts of a sound knowledge-base of NPPs operation, which is an indispensable requisite for performing valid safety assessments. Various national organizations, who collect operational data, supply it to the JRC. This data, after its transcoding, when necessary, into a common reference classification scheme and format, is entered in the ERDS banks. To meet the different requirements of the various types of information which are to be stored, the ERDS has been structured as follows:

• a) Component Event Data Bank (CEDB), the purpose of which is the storage of information on the operational history of components of NPPs (failure-events, operational times/cycles).

• b) Abnormal Occurrences Reporting System (AORS), the purpose of which is the storage of information on accidental events, or events which might be hazardous from the point of view of safety, which occurred in NPPs.

• c) Operating Unit Status Report (OUSR), the purpose of which is the storage of information on outages and operational performance of NPPs.

• d) Reliability Parameter Data Bank (RPDB), which is still in a definition phase; it will not store events, but reliability parameters (related to failure, unavailability, repair time).