Design Verification of Instrumentation and Control Systems of Nuclear Power Plants

TLDR

Instrumentation and Control (I&C) systems are the nervous system of a nuclear power plant, monitoring plant health and enabling adjustments to maintain efficient power production and safety, and their safety significance makes design verification essential. The study aims to develop a design verification methodology that ensures I&C systems are fully functional. The authors model I&C systems with Petri nets, convert them to Markov chains, and solve the resulting linear system, leveraging the Markov model’s strengths. The method was validated on seven operational datasets from seven nuclear power plants. The acronym I&C is spelled identically in singular and plural forms.

Abstract

Instrumentation and Control systems are the nervous system of a nuclear power plant. They monitor all facets of the plant's health and help respond with care and adjustments needed, thus ensuring goals of efficient power production and safety. Due to safety significance of I&C, it becomes increasingly important to have a design verification methodology which ensures I&C systems fully functional. The strategy discussed the system modeling for design verification using Petri Net, converting it into Markov Chain and solving the linear system mathematically. It also exploits the best attribute of the created Markov model. The approach has been validated on seven sets of operation profile data of reactor control system of seven Nuclear Power Plants. The singular & plural of an acronym are always spelled the same.