headshot of Tatsuya Sakurahara

Tatsuya Sakurahara

Assistant Professor
tsakurahara@pitt.edu
(412) 648-4247
RARE Lab Website Google Scholar Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

overview

Dr. Tatsuya Sakurahara is the Director of the Risk Analysis and Reliability Engineering (RARE) Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS), Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Sakurahara’s research advances risk and reliability analysis to enhance the safety and performance of complex technological systems, particularly nuclear energy systems. The goal of his work is to support risk-informed decision-making throughout the life cycle of these systems—from design and licensing to construction and operation, aimed at enabling the deployment of next-generation nuclear energy systems and other emerging technologies.

His research integrates state-of-the-art simulations, systematic risk modeling, and probabilistic techniques. His expertise spans multiple aspects of risk and reliability analysis, including uncertainty quantification, probabilistic physics-of-failure simulation, human reliability analysis, decision analysis, and AI and machine learning for risk and reliability analysis.

Before joining Pitt, Dr. Sakurahara was a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering (NPRE) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Dr. Sakurahara earned his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from UIUC in 2018, and his M.S. in nuclear engineering and management (2013) and B.S. in systems engineering with a concentration in environment and energy systems (2011) from the University of Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Sakurahara is a recipient of the 2022 George Apostolakis Fellowship from the International Association for Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management.

about

PhD, Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2018

MS, Nuclear Engineering and Management, University of Tokyo, 2013

BS, Environment and Energy System Engineering, University of Tokyo, 2011

Albati, M., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., Yang, J., von Thaden, T., Kesler, R., Masoud, F., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2024). Uncertainty-Based Validation Methodology and Experimental Analysis for External Control Room Human Performance Simulation: Application to Fire Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Nuclear Power Plants. NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1-20.Taylor & Francis. doi: 10.1080/00295639.2024.2366735.

Alkhatib, S., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., Ratte, B., Kaspar, K., Hunt, S., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2024). Phenomenological Nondimensional Parameter Decomposition to Enhance the Use of Simulation Modeling in Fire Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Nuclear Power Plants. Journal of Nuclear Engineering, 5(3), 226-245.MDPI AG. doi: 10.3390/jne5030016.

Beal, J., Sakurahara, T., Farshadmanesh, P., Reihani, S., Kee, E., Rowell, A., Yilmaz, F., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2024). Modeling interconnections of safety and financial performance of nuclear power plants, Part 2: Methodological developments and case study. PROGRESS IN NUCLEAR ENERGY, 171, 105100.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.pnucene.2024.105100.

Bui, H., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2024). Probabilistic Validation: Computational Platform and Application to Fire Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Nuclear Power Plants. ASCE-ASME JOURNAL OF RISK AND UNCERTAINTY IN ENGINEERING SYSTEMS PART B-MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, 10(2).ASME International. doi: 10.1115/1.4063071.

Farshadmanesh, P., Beal, J., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., Rowell, A., Yilmaz, F., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2024). Modeling interconnections of safety and financial performance of nuclear power plants part 1: Categorical review and theoretical bases. PROGRESS IN NUCLEAR ENERGY, 171, 105123.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.pnucene.2024.105123.

Shimada, K., Sakurahara, T., Farshadmanesh, P., Reihani, S., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2024). Integration of Level 3 probabilistic risk assessment for nuclear power plants with transportation simulation considering earthquake hazards. ANNALS OF NUCLEAR ENERGY, 197, 110243.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.anucene.2023.110243.

Bui, H., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2023). Probabilistic Validation: Theoretical Foundation and Methodological Platform. ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering, 9(2).ASME International. doi: 10.1115/1.4056883.

Cheng, W.C., Beal, J., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2022). Modeling interconnections of safety and financial performance of nuclear power plants, part 3: Spatiotemporal probabilistic physics-of-failure analysis and its connection to safety and financial performance. PROGRESS IN NUCLEAR ENERGY, 153, 104382.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.pnucene.2022.104382.

Heckmann, K., Ahn, D.H., Beal, J., Cheng, W.C., Duan, X., Jevremovic, T., Kee, E., Mohaghegh, Z., Lydell, B., Reihani, S., Sakurahara, T., & Wang, M. (2022). Estimation of pipe failure frequencies in the absence of operational experience data: A pilot study. NUCLEAR ENGINEERING AND DESIGN, 398, 111990.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2022.111990.

Yang, J., Kim, J., Farshadmanesh, P., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Blake, C., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2022). Uncertainty analysis on support vector machine for measuring organizational factors in probabilistic risk assessment of nuclear power plants. PROGRESS IN NUCLEAR ENERGY, 153, 104411.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.pnucene.2022.104411.

Bui, H., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2020). Spatiotemporal Integration of an Agent-Based First Responder Performance Model With a Fire Hazard Propagation Model for Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Nuclear Power Plants. ASCE-ASME JOURNAL OF RISK AND UNCERTAINTY IN ENGINEERING SYSTEMS PART B-MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, 6(1).ASME International. doi: 10.1115/1.4044793.

Cheng, W.C., Sakurahara, T., Zhang, S., Farshadmanesh, P., Reihani, S., Kee, E., Mohaghegh, Z., Heckmann, K., Sievers, J., Lydell, B., Zammali, C., Yuan, X.X., Duan, X., Alzbutas, R., Lee, G.G., Karim, J.A., Morozov, V., Takasugi, C., & Jevremovic, T. (2020). Review and categorization of existing studies on the estimation of probabilistic failure metrics for Reactor Coolant Pressure Boundary piping and steam generator tubes in Nuclear Power Plants. PROGRESS IN NUCLEAR ENERGY, 118, 103105.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.pnucene.2019.103105.

Sakurahara, T., Mohaghegh, Z., & Kee, E. (2020). Human Reliability Analysis-Based Method for Manual Fire Suppression Analysis in an Integrated Probabilistic Risk Assessment. ASCE-ASME JOURNAL OF RISK AND UNCERTAINTY IN ENGINEERING SYSTEMS PART B-MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, 6(1).ASME International. doi: 10.1115/1.4044792.

Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2020). Global importance measure methodology for integrated probabilistic risk assessment. PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS PART O-JOURNAL OF RISK AND RELIABILITY, 234(2), 377-396.SAGE Publications. doi: 10.1177/1748006X19879316.

Schumock, G., Zhang, S., Farshadmanesh, P., Owens, J.G., Kasza, N., Stearns, J., Sakurahara, T., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2020). Integrated Risk-Informed Design (I-RID) methodological framework and computational application for FLEX equipment storage buildings of Nuclear Power Plants. PROGRESS IN NUCLEAR ENERGY, 120, 103186.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.pnucene.2019.103186.

Bui, H., Sakurahara, T., Pence, J., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2019). An algorithm for enhancing spatiotemporal resolution of probabilistic risk assessment to address emergent safety concerns in nuclear power plants. RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY, 185, 405-428.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.ress.2019.01.004.

Farshadmanesh, P., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2019). SHAKE-RoverD Framework for Nuclear Power Plants: A Streamlined Approach for Seismic Risk Assessment. NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY, 205(3), 442-463.Taylor & Francis. doi: 10.1080/00295450.2018.1494439.

Pence, J., Miller, I., Sakurahara, T., Whitacre, J., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2019). GIS-Based Integration of Social Vulnerability and Level 3 Probabilistic Risk Assessment to Advance Emergency Preparedness, Planning, and Response for Severe Nuclear Power Plant Accidents. RISK ANALYSIS, 39(6), 1262-1280.Wiley. doi: 10.1111/risa.13241.

Pence, J., Sakurahara, T., Zhu, X., Mohaghegh, Z., Ertem, M., Ostroff, C., & Kee, E. (2019). Data-theoretic methodology and computational platform to quantify organizational factors in socio-technical risk analysis. RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY, 185, 240-260.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.ress.2018.12.020.

Sakurahara, T., O'Shea, N., Cheng, W.C., Zhang, S., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2019). Integrating renewal process modeling with Probabilistic Physics-of-Failure: Application to Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) frequency estimations in nuclear power plants. RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY, 190, 106479.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.ress.2019.04.032.

Sakurahara, T., Schumock, G., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2019). Simulation-Informed Probabilistic Methodology for Common Cause Failure Analysis. RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY, 185, 84-99.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.ress.2018.12.007.

Sakurahara, T., Mohaghegh, Z., Reihani, S., & Kee, E. (2018). Methodological and Practical Comparison of Integrated Probabilistic Risk Assessment (I-PRA) with the Existing Fire PRA of Nuclear Power Plants. NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY, 204(3), 354-377.Taylor & Francis. doi: 10.1080/00295450.2018.1486159.

Sakurahara, T., Mohaghegh, Z., Reihani, S., Kee, E., Brandyberry, M., & Rodgers, S. (2018). An integrated methodology for spatio-temporal incorporation of underlying failure mechanisms into fire probabilistic risk assessment of nuclear power plants. RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY, 169, 242-257.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.ress.2017.09.001.

Kee, E., Hasenbein, J., Zolan, A., Grissom, P., Reihani, S., Mohaghegh, Z., Yilmaz, F., Letellier, B., Moiseytseva, V., Vaghetto, R., Imbaratto, D., & Sakurahara, T. (2016). RoverD: Use of Test Data in GSI-191 Risk Assessment. NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY, 196(2), 270-291.Taylor & Francis. doi: 10.13182/NT16-34.

Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Mohaghegh, Z., Brandyberry, M., Kee, E., Rodgers, S., Billings, M., & Johnson, D. (2015). Integrated PRA methodology to advance fire risk modeling for nuclear power plants. In Safety and Reliability of Complex Engineered Systems. (pp. 595-603).Taylor & Francis. doi: 10.1201/b19094-82.

Alkhatib, S., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., Ratte, B., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2020). Academia-Industry Collaboration to Advance Screening Processes in Fire PRA of Nuclear Power Plants. In Proceedings of the 30th European Safety and Reliability Conference and 15th Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference, (pp. 4270-4277).Research Publishing Services. doi: 10.3850/978-981-14-8593-0_5817-cd.

Beal, J., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2020). An Algorithm for Risk-Informed Analysis of Advanced Nuclear Reactors with a Case Study of Pipe Failure Rate Estimation. In Proceedings of the 30th European Safety and Reliability Conference and 15th Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference, (pp. 4170-4177).Research Publishing Services. doi: 10.3850/978-981-14-8593-0_5816-cd.

Biersdorf, J., Reihani, S., Sakurahara, T., Mohaghegh, Z., & Bui, H. (2020). I-PRA Uncertainty Importance Ranking to Enhance Fire PRA Realism for Nuclear Power Plants. In Transactions of the American Nuclear Society - Volume 123, (pp. 967-970).American Nuclear Society. doi: 10.13182/t123-33477.

Blake, C., Pence, J., Farshadmanesh, P., Reihani, S., Sakurahara, T., Mohaghegh, Z., & Yang, J. (2020). Equipping Machine Learning with Uncertainty Quantification to Update Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Nuclear Power Plants using NRC Licensee Event Reports. In Transactions of the American Nuclear Society - Volume 123, (pp. 280-283).American Nuclear Society. doi: 10.13182/t123-33447.

Farshadmanesh, P., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2020). Risk-Informed Analysis of Nuclear Power Plant FLEX Storage Building. In Proceedings of the 30th European Safety and Reliability Conference and 15th Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference, (pp. 2437-2443).Research Publishing Services. doi: 10.3850/978-981-14-8593-0_4557-cd.

Kee, E., Beal, J., Reihani, S., Sakurahara, T., Mohaghegh, Z., & Cheng, W. (2020). Integrated Probabilistic Physics of Failure Methodology to Estimate Pipe Failure Rates for Risk-Informed Analysis of Advanced Nuclear Reactors. In Transactions of the American Nuclear Society - Volume 123, (pp. 963-966).American Nuclear Society. doi: 10.13182/t123-33417.

Kee, E., Reihani, S., Sakurahara, T., Mohaghegh, Z., & Beal, J. (2020). Integrated Enterprise Risk Management to Synchronize Safety and Profitability Analysis for Nuclear Power Plants. In Transactions of the American Nuclear Society - Volume 123, (pp. 959-962).American Nuclear Society. doi: 10.13182/t123-33167.

Pence, J., Yang, J., Farshadmanesh, P., Sakurahara, T., Reihani, S., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2020). Theory-Guided Machine Learning for Licensee event Reports of U.S. Nuclear Power Plants to Quantify Organizational Factors in Probabilistic Risk Assessment. In Proceedings of the 30th European Safety and Reliability Conference and 15th Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference, (p. 2826).Research Publishing Services. doi: 10.3850/978-981-14-8593-0_5809-cd.

Sakurahara, T., Bui, H., Reihani, S., Kee, E., & Mohaghegh, Z. (2020). Enhancing Realism in Fire Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Nuclear Power Plants. In Proceedings of the 30th European Safety and Reliability Conference and 15th Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference, (pp. 1836-1843).Research Publishing Services. doi: 10.3850/978-981-14-8593-0_4482-cd.

Biersdorf, J., Bui, H., Mohaghegh, Z., Reihani, S., & Sakurahara, T. (2019). Integrated Probabilistic Risk Assessment (I-PRA) Importance Ranking for Fire PRA of Nuclear Power Plants. In Transactions of the American Nuclear Society - Volume 121, (pp. 997-1003).American Nuclear Society. doi: 10.13182/t31340.