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The p-center problem is one of the most important models in location theory. Its objective is to place a fixed number of facilities so that the maximum service distance for all customers is as small as possible. This article develops a reliable p-center problem that can account for system vulnerability and facility failure. A basic assumption is that located centers can fail with a given probability and a customer will fall back to the closest nonfailing center for service. The proposed model seeks to minimize the expected value of the maximum service distance for a service system. In addition, the proposed model is general and can be used to solve other fault-tolerant center location problems such as the (p, q)-center problem using appropriate assignment vectors. I present an integer programming formulation of the model and computational experiments, and then conclude with a summary of findings and point out possible future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]