Hazardous configurations control througth dependence matrixes

The hazardous configurations control in risk related facilities has been carried out by the analysis of minimal cut sets obtained from previous risk analysis. A more complete option is the risk monitoring for the on-line detection of these configurations. This is a very important task in cases of real demand, because these configurations represent a degraded condition of system reliability and, which in the worst case, may result in the system fault, and consequently, in the loss of the facility. On the other hand, the dependence matrixes are generally used in studying the interfaces among technological systems in PSA. The paper presents a configuration control method, based on dependence matrixes. The algorithm is included in a computer code called CONFIGURACION, to determine these situations in a qualitative way, without previous PSA results or using a Risk Monitor. This possibility of analysis is a novelty. The simplicity of the method warrants its application to facilities where these tools have not been developed, thus allowing the detection of hazardous configurations in case of simultaneous failures, equipment rotations, test and/or maintenances. The first version of this configuration control system is used as an aid in the operation of NPP Embalse