Status of the ETHZ Curated Nuclear Events Database

Precursors and startling lessons: Statistical analysis of 1250 events with safety significance from the civil nuclear sector

“…Realizing these limitations, we have compiled a unique database, namely, the ETHZ Curated Nuclear Events Database [16], with more than 1250 safety significant events around the world, covering the whole time-period of civil nuclear power operation. The events in the database have been systematically analyzed by multiple nuclear-safety experts, providing a curated intermediate-level description, and coherent breakdown of features such as origin of the event, causes and contributors, type of failure, operating mode, failure sequence, significance, and many others.…”

“…Worldwide civil nuclear operations have accumulated more than 18 ′ 000 reactor-years [15] of experience, providing substantial amounts of data, a subset of which we try to utilize in this paper. Specifically, we are using the ETHZ Curated Nuclear Events Database [16,17], to extract important lessons and identify potential precursory signals. The database currently contains more than 1250 safety important events from around the world, making it by far the largest open-source, comprehensive, and academically driven initiative in the world.…”