This paper describes the approach taken by the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the treatment of common-cause failure in probabilistic risk assessment of operational events. The approach is based upon the Basic Parameter Model for common-cause failure, and examples are illustrated using the alpha-factor parameterization, the approach adopted by the NRC in their Standardized Plant Analysis Risk (SPAR) models. The cases of a failed component (with and without shared common-cause failure potential) and a component being unavailable due to preventive maintenance or testing are addressed. The treatment of two related failure modes (e.g., failure to start and failure to run) is a new feature of this paper. These methods are being applied by the NRC in assessing the risk significance of operational events for the Significance Determination Process (SDP) and the Accident Sequence Precursor (ASP) program.
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