Lessons Learnt from Common-Cause Failure of Emergency Diesel Generators in Nuclear Power Plants: A Report from the International Common-Cause Failure Data Exchange (ICDE) Project

NEA/CSNI/R(2018)5

This report documents a study performed on a set of common-cause failure (CCF) events of Emergency Diesel Generators (EDG) at nuclear power plants. In May 2000, the ICDE Project published a report summarising the collection and analysis of EDG CCF events. The report examined 106 collected events. Since that time, the ICDE Project has continued the collection of EDG CCF events. The database now includes 224 EDG CCF events spanning a period from 1977 through 2012. These events were examined by tabulating the data and observing trends. Once trends were identified, individual events were reviewed for insights. The objectives of this report are:

  • to describe the data profile for EDG;
  • to develop qualitative insights in the nature of the reported events, expressed by root causes, coupling factors and corrective actions;
  • to develop the failure mechanisms and phenomena involved in the events, their relationship to the root causes and possibilities for improvement.