Home > Electronic Reading Room > Basic References > Glossary > Deterministic (probabilistic) Deterministic (probabilistic) Consistent with the principles of "determinism," which hold that specific causes completely and certainly determine effects of all sorts. As applied in nuclear technology, it generally deals with evaluating the safety of a nuclear power plant in terms of the consequences of a predetermined bounding subset of accident sequences. The term "probabilistic" is associated with an evaluation that explicitly accounts for the likelihood and consequences of possible accident sequences in an integrated fashion. | 
