Reply To: Questions regarding DPF.

[jamesr]

To quote from my last year’s Masters notes on Risk Analysis and Nuclear Safety:

– Risk is defined as
Probability of a detriment occurring * Consequence of that detriment
– Risk can be reduced by engineered safeguards

– Hazard is an intrinsic property of an objective
– Hazard can be reduced by reducing the quantity of hazardous materials or modifying its form.

“While there is significant work on numerical calculations of risk. The question of developing a Safety Culture is one that involves whole questions of person to person interactions and organisational management. These may well have overtones which are not obvious” Rouchlin on “The Social Construction of Safety”

– Radiological protection principles require justification of any practice leading to exposure to radiation
– Nuclear Power generation is justified by the net benefit from the electricity produced
– After shut-down of a plant the benefit ceases, hence decommissioning policy is based on a systematic and progressive reduction of hazard

Risk is framed in three bands of ‘Tolerability of Risk’:
– Highest Risk: Intolerable region – unacceptable save in extraordinary cercumstance
– Intermediate: Risk must be managed as shown to be As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP)
– Lowest Risk: Broadly acceptable region