Reliability Analysis of the Emergency Power Supply System of the Starfire Tokamak

Abstract

Early attention to safety will ensure that the potential safety advantages of fusion are realized. Reliability analysis techniques are applied to a major safety system, the emergency power supply system, using the STARFIRE design as an example. The median failure probability of this system is found to be 2 × 10⁻⁶ at shutdown, with an error factor of 5. This is comparable with the reliability of similar systems in existing fission power stations.