Mina Torabi

PhD Topic: Probabilistic Risk Assessment of High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor
Supervisor: Prof. Mariusz Dąbrowski

The aim of this project is to develop novel approaches for Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) for the Generation IV nuclear reactors. The necessity for improvements of the existing PSA methodology results from the novel technological concepts of generation IV reactors for which neither the damage states, safety goals nor risk measures are clearly defined. For these reasons the traditional approach to the PRA level I, aiming at the calculation of the core damage frequency is no longer applicable and needs to be redefined. Also, the second and the third level of PRA studies, aiming at large release frequency assessment and estimation of the consequences, must be reconsidered in the terms of physical phenomena and parameter regimes characteristic for the High or Very High-Temperature Reactors (HTR/VHTR). Improvement of the PRA methodology to be applicable for the Generation IV reactors requires among others: appropriate definition of the end sates of accident sequences based on specific risk metrics (that should be also defined), identification of potential initiating events, development of methods for modeling of the accident progression, and estimation of (passive) safety functions related with accident sequences models. Apart from the fault tree and failure tree approach commonly used in the PRA studies, it is reasonable to consider alternative approaches to modelling of failure sequences which could be based for example on the applications of Bayesian networks. It implies also the more efficient methods for uncertainty and sensitivity analysis to be developed.

Seminars and conference talks:

• Failure Mode and Reliability Analysis of the HTTR Electrical Facility, UZ3 and PhD4Gen seminars, National Center for Nuclear Research, April 28, 2020, Otwock-Świerk, Poland, (seminar talk).
• Safety analysis of Control Rod effects of Tehran Research Reactor, International Youth Nuclear Congress 2018-26th WiN Global Annual Conference, March 11-17, 2018, San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina Republic, (conference talk).
• Characteristic of Depressurized Loss of Forced Cooling Accident in High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor, UZ3 and PhD4Gen seminars, National Center for Nuclear Research, April 6, 2021, Otwock-Świerk, Poland, (seminar talk).

Publications:

• Mina Torabi, Ahmad Lashkari, S.Farhad Masoudi, Somayeh Bagheri. “Neutronic analysis of control rod effect on safety parameters in Tehran Research Reactor”, published on 1 June 2018 in Nuclear Engineering and Technology. DOI:10.1016/j.net.2018.05.008.
• Karol Kowal, Mina Torabi,. “Failure Mode and Reliability Study for Electrical Facility of the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor”, published online 11 February 2021 in Reliability Engineering and system safety, DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2021.107.

Posters::
“Thermalhydraulic analysis of control rods effects on safety parameters in Tehran Research Reactor”,
European research reactor Conference, March 24-28, 2019, Crowne Plaza Dead Sea Resort, Jordan.

Courses:

• Nuclear reactors – Dr. O. Dorosh
• Fundamentals of reactor physics – prof. W. Gudowski
• Numerical methods in high-temperature nuclear engineering – Dr. S. Potempski
• Reactor physics of HTR-s – prof. J. Cetnar
• Applications of metaheuristics – Dr. A. Wawrzynczak
• Advanced statistical techniques and data mining for nuclear data – Dr. P. Kopka