Development of EMRALD Services in a Fully-integrated RISMC Platform

FPoliSolutions (FPS) has an existing RISMC Commercialization Program being funded by a separate Phase-II DOE SBIR (DE-FOA-0001646 ,Topic C42-30f), whose mission is the development and commercialization of an integrated data/simulation management framework which will enable a rapid introduction of Dynamic Probabilistic Risk Assessment (D-PRA) and Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) applications to nuclear power plants (NPP). As part of the RISMC Commercialization Program FPS’s has been further developing the RAVEN technology for simulation management, limit surface studies, and Reduced Order Model (ROM) creation, and creating an enterprise system NX-Hub to streamline the deployment of these RISMC services.For this project, EMRALD will be integrated into FPS’s NX-Hub as a service. EMRALD uses a state engine approach to provide the sequence and timing of events from state diagrams. This functionality will close a gap in the current RISMC Commercialization Program. FPS’S current RISMC Program lacks the capability to quickly run through basic events, fault trees, and event trees (traditional PRA Artifacts) to determine the physics needed for simulations, and the timing/sequence of the events to configure the simulations. This must be constructed manually by the user. EMRALD has the domain look and feel of traditional PRA, but enables introduction of D-PRA techniques, when integrated with NX-Hub EMRALD will drive RAVEN for the time- response physics simulator for events of interest. FPS will work with INL to create an interface with SAPHIRE to transition the traditional PRA artifacts of events, fault trees, and event trees into the D-PRA state diagrams.The current RISMC Program workflow uses NX-HUB as a database, with a browser-based user interface that can run tens of thousands of simulations, with multiple simulators once the event sequence and times has been input (RELAP5-3D, and others) to support NPP safety analysis. The workflow is very efficient and lean with regard to parameter, file, data management, and RAVEN simulation interfacing. With EMRALD integration the user will be able to manage plant parameter data needed for analysis, down-select scenarios or plant configurations that require an actual time-response simulation and perform the simulation through RAVEN services that will run RELAP5-3D or other simulators.PS’s RISMC Commercialization Program is strongly supported by US nuclear utilities, whose input to steers the near- and mid- term development objectives. Throughout Phase I/Phase II of the RISMC Commercialization Program FPS had workshops for requirements gathering and demos with three utilities and one vendor to expose NX-Hub concepts to gather support and commercialization feedback. FPS will repeat this with the EMRALD project, to foster utility participation and ensure EMRALD commercialization after Phase-III. One US nuclear utility has already pledged support for this project, with more sure to follow.In Phase-I, FPS will focus on learning the details of technology implemented in EMRALD and developing a prototype that will demonstrate feasibility. This demo will be given to the utilities participating in FPS RISMC program and therefore plant the seed for future commercial application. EMRALD integration as a service to NX-HUB will streamline commercial deployment and provide utility exposure.