• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.87-95
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• 2011

The urgent VAI(Vital Area Identification) method development is required since 'The Act of Physical Protection and Radiological Emergency' that is established in 2003 requires an evaluation of physical threats in nuclear facilities and an establishment of physical protection in Korea. The KAERI(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) has developed the VAI methodology and VAI software called as VIPEX(Vital area Identification Package EXpert) for identifying the vital areas. This study is to demonstrate the applicability of KAERI's VAI methodology to a hypothetical facility, and to identify the importance of information of cable and piping runs when identifying the vital areas. It is necessarily needed to consider cable and piping runs to determine the accurate and realistic TEPS(Top Event Prevention Set). If the information of cable and piping runs of a nuclear power plant is not considered when determining the TEPSs, it is absolutely impossible to acquire the complete TEPSs, and the results could be distorted by missing it. The VIPEX and FTREX(Fault Tree Reliability Evaluation eXpert) properly calculate MCSs and TEPSs using the fault tree model, and provide the most cost-effective method to save the VAI and physical protection costs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.91.2-91
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• 2001

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.63-68
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• 2009

The urgent VAI method development is required since "The Act of Physical Protection and Radiological Emergency that is established in 2003" requires an evaluation of physical threats in nuclear facilities and an establishment of physical protection in Korea. The VAI methodology is developed to (1) make a sabotage model by reusing existing fire/flooding/pipe break PSA models, (2) calculate MCSs and TEPSs, (3) select the most cost-effective TEPS among many TEPSs, (4) determine the compartments in a selected TEPS as vital areas, and (5) provide protection measures to the vital areas. The developed VAI methodology contains four steps, (1) collecting the internal level 1 PSA model and information, (2) developing the fire/flood/pipe rupture model based on level 1 PSA model, (3) integrating the fire/flood/pipe rupture model into the sabotage model by JSTAR, and (4) calculating MCSs and TEPS. The VAT process is performed through the VIPEX that was developed in KAERI. This methodology serves as a guide to develop a sabotage model by using existing internal and external PSA models. When this methodology is used to identify the vital areas, it provides the most cost-effective method to save the VAI and physical protection costs.