Vital Area Analysis for Nuclear Power Plants

As a part of the review of amended security plans, the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is using systematic analytic techniques to identify vital areas in all nuclear power plants. Los Alamos National Scientific Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories are supporting the vital area identification effort through the development and analysis of sabotage fault trees. The sabotage fault trees provide a structured analytic tool which clearly illustrates the system characteristics and plant features which determine vital areas in each plant. To date the analyses of approximately 30 plants have been performed. This paper discusses the procedures used in this inter-laboratory effort and selected results of the analyses.