The Fire Hazards Analysis is the basis documents which describes the plant with respect to fire hazards within the plant areas. This document also contains information to demonstrate that a given nuclear plant can be safely shutdown. As a minimum, the fire hazard analysis will contain the following essential elements;
- Plan and elevation views of the plant which divide the plant into distinct fire areas.
- A description of the various systems, both safety-related and non-safety-related, which occupy a fire area. Special attention must be paid to equipment which provides cooling to the core to safely shutdown the reactor.
- An analysis of how the above essential equipment or systems can be affected by a design basis fire, and how the potential adverse impacts will be mitigated.
- Finally, a description of plant areas that contain radioactive material which may be released to the exclusion area or beyond should a fire occur.
How can Tri-En help?
Utilizing the services of our qualified fire protection engineers, Tri-En can help perform proper fire hazard analysis of a single area or an entire power plant. For each fire area, we:
- Provide a description of the fire barrier that defines the fire area, the consequences of the design basis fire for that area, and the consequences of the fire if the fire protection system functions as designed.
- Identify the safety related equipment and associated cabling.
- Provide the design criteria for the fire protection related to such equipment as well as provide the design criteria for protection of such equipment against inadvertent operation, careless operation or rupture of extinguishing systems.
- Provide a list of the type, quantity and other pertinent characteristics of combustible materials associated with each fire area, including the associated fire loading.
- Describe all the extinguishing and detection capabilities within each fire area as well as the extinguishing equipment outside an area which has access to the area.
- Discuss all means for containing and inhibiting the progress of a fire (e.g. the use of fire stops, coatings, curbs, walls, etc.).
- Analyze the equipment that can be affected by the design basis fire, and assess their potential impact on Safe Shutdown functions.
- Demonstrate how the effects of a fire in any given area will be mitigated.
The above elements represent basic information needed to fully demonstrate that a design basis fire will not adversely affect the plant’s ability to achieve and maintain safe shutdown conditions.
