Search for Scaling Laws in Nuclear and Radiological Events

This paper investigates the possible existence of a power law relationship between the frequency (the rate of event occurrences) and the severity of nuclear and radiological events. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study on the existence of possible scaling laws for such types of events. Two relevant databases (the ETH Zurich curated nuclear events database and the Database of Radiological Incidents and Related Events) were used in this study. It was found from both databases that the time intervals between successive nuclear events (at nuclear power plants and other facilities) follow an exponential distribution. The results of the statistical analysis with higher sensitivity to tail distributions showed that the available data related to the severity of nuclear events may follow a power law. The question of possible safety-related consequences of accident tolerance strategies is also touched upon.