Containment performance criteria (CPC) are derived systematically, given top level safety goals related to public risk. The main focus is on the relationships between the top level safety goals and lower level design objectives, and the way in which the latter are determined. A set of CPC is identified in terms of the reliabilities of the systems that perform various containment functions. The multiobjective optimization approach is used as a method for deriving a finite manageable set of self-consistent relations between the top level safety goals and specific containment performance. As a global set of measures of plant performance or objective functions, acute and latent fatalities and the total reliability cost are chosen. The latter is included because it represents both technical and economic limitations in achieving a certain level of the first two members of the global set. A specific application is made to a large dry containment. A set of noninferior solutions (optimized solutions in a multiobjective optimization problem) is shown and discussed.