US NRC RESEARCH AND DIGITAL INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL

Publisher Summary This chapter describes US National Research Council's (NRC) study analyzing safety and reliability of digital instrumentation and control systems in nuclear power plants. Digital Instrumentation and control systems designs are being proposed in ever-increasing number for commercial nuclear power plants. Digital systems are also being proposed for safety systems and process control systems for all advanced reactor designs. This technology brings with it new benefits and the potential for new failure modes. Past experience, standards, and regulatory requirements have been primarily based on analog, hard-wired systems. There is a need to explore the impact of introducing digital instrumentation and control technology into nuclear power plants and to define important safety issues that arise in such applications. Also, there is a need for an effective regulatory position that applies to the use of this technology to ensure the important safety issues are adequately addressed. The chapter discusses some of the programs to resolve these issues. It also discusses a NRC study and workshop on safety and reliability of digital instrumentation and control systems in nuclear power plants.