Guidance on the Treatment of Uncertainties Associated with PRAs in Risk-Informed Decisionmaking, Final Report (NUREG-1855, Revision 1)

On this page:

• Publication Information
• Abstract

Download complete document

• NUREG-1855, Revision 1 (PDF – 2.17 MB)

For information about how the NRC handles your comments, see our Privacy Policy.

Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: July 2016
Date Published: March 2017

Prepared by:
M. Drouin¹, A. Gilbertson¹, G. Parry²
J. Lehner³, G. Martinez-Guridi³
J. LaChance⁴, T. Wheeler⁴

²Former NRC Employee
³Brookhaven National Laboratory
Upton, NY 11973
⁴Sandia National Laboratories
Albuquerque, NM 87185

M. Drouin, NRC Project Manager

¹Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

Availability Notice

Abstract

This document provides guidance on how to treat uncertainties associated with probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) in risk-informed decisionmaking. The objectives of this guidance include fostering an understanding of the uncertainties associated with PRA and their impact on the results of PRA and providing a pragmatic approach to addressing these uncertainties in the context of the decisionmaking.

In implementing risk-informed decisionmaking, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) expects that appropriate consideration of uncertainty will be given in the analyses used to support the decision and in the interpretation of the findings of those analyses. To meet the objective of this document, it is necessary to understand the role that PRA results play in the context of the decision process. To define this context, this document provides an overview of the risk-informed decisionmaking process itself.

With the context defined, this document describes the characteristics of a risk model and, in particular, a PRA. This description includes recognition that a PRA, being a probabilistic model, characterizes aleatory uncertainty that results from randomness associated with the events of the model. Because the focus of this document is epistemic uncertainty (i.e., uncertainties in the formulation of the PRA model), it provides guidance on identifying and describing the different types of sources of epistemic uncertainty and the different ways that they are treated. The different types of epistemic uncertainty are parameter, model, and completeness uncertainties.

The final part of the guidance addresses the uncertainty in PRA results in the context of risk-informed decisionmaking and, in particular, the interpretation of the results of the uncertainty analysis when comparing PRA results with the acceptance guidelines established for a specified application. In addition, guidance is provided for addressing completeness uncertainty in risk-informed decisionmaking. Such consideration includes using a program of monitoring, feedback, and corrective action.

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement
This NUREG does not contain information collection requirements and, therefore, is not subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).

Public Protection Notification
The NRC may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a request for information or an information collection requirement unless the requesting document displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget control number.