Educational Courses

Risk-Informed Operational Decision Management

• Date: 16-20 June 2008
• Tuition: $2550 (See below for group rate and other reduced rate options)
• Director: Professor George Apostolakis (MIT)
• Sponsors: The MIT Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems (CANES), National Academy for Nuclear Training (NANT)
• Continuing Education Units: 3 CEUs
• Location: MIT Campus (classroom to be announced at registration), Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Course Syllabus
(June 2007)

A participatory and thought-provoking one-week program, this course is for nuclear plant and corporate managers, supervisors, engineers, and other personnel who, although not probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) practitioners, want to learn how to apply PSA results effectively. Increase your knowledge of PSA principles, including an understanding of the basis of PSA, its benefits and recent developments. Recognize the strengths and limitations of using PSA when making decisions. Discover ways to integrate the results of PSA into operational decision-making. Share ideas, information, and challenges with industry peers.

Increasingly, nuclear plants use PSA methods to make a variety of operational decisions. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has formalized the use of PSA in regulatory matters in Regulatory Guide 1.174, "An Approach for Using Probabilistic Risk Assessment in Risk-Informed Decisions on Plant-Specific Changes to the Current Licensing Basis."

Topics to be covered include:

PSA Overview and Theory.
The theoretical portion of the course provides a sound basis in PSA and covers basic probability and statistics; data analysis; event trees and fault trees; human reliability; importance measures; risk management; and much more.

PSA Applications.
In this portion you learn how to apply PSA results to situations you routinely encounter in nuclear power plant operations, including the following areas:

• technical specification changes
  
• reactor oversight process
  
• Mitigating Systems Performance Index (MSPI)
  
• low-power and shutdown operations
  
• special treatment requirements
  
• fire protection
  
• transitioning to the NFPA 805 standard
  
• in-service inspection
  
• safety monitors
  
• power uprates
  
• security threats
  
• risk-based analysis of operating experience
  
• grid reliability

Course instructors are recognized experts in their fields and are selected from distinguished university faculty, nuclear utilities, consulting firms, the Electric Power Research Institute, and the Nuclear Energy Institute. Additional presentations will be given by representatives of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Sponsors

The course is co-sponsored with CANES by the National Academy for Nuclear Training (NANT), which operates under the auspices of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. INPO’s mission is: To promote the highest levels of safety and reliability—to promote excellence—in the operation of nuclear electric generating plants. The Academy contact is Rick Reynolds (reynoldsrh@inpo.org).

Discounts

Combined rate for both courses: $4600.

If a participant registers for both CANES-sponsored educational courses (Nuclear Plant Safety and Risk-Informed Operational Decision Management), the combined rate for both courses is $4600.

Scholarships for teaching faculty

A limited number of 1/2-tuition scholarships are available for teaching faculty (rank of instructor or higher) of other US educational institutions.

Group rates

Fifteen or more participants from a single company are eligible for a refund of 15% per person, to be paid at the end of the last course. This refund would override any other discount.

Register online >>