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A Redundancy-Guided Approach for the Hazard Analysis of Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems in Advanced Nuclear Power Plants

Journal Article · · Nuclear Technology
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [1]
  1. University of Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
  2. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
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We report digital instrumentation and control (I&C) upgrades are a vital research area for the nuclear industry. Despite their performance benefits, deployment of digital I&C in nuclear power plants (NPPs) has been limited. Digital I&C systems exhibit complex failure modes including common cause failures (CCFs), which can be difficult to identify. This paper describes the development of a redundancy-guided application of the Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis and fault tree analysis for the hazard analysis of digital I&C in advanced NPPs. The resulting Redundancy-Guided Systems-Theoretic Hazard Analysis (RESHA) is applied for the case study of a representative state-of-the-art digital reactor trip system. The analysis qualitatively and systematically identifies the most critical CCFs and other hazards of digital I&C systems. Ultimately, the RESHA can help researchers make informed decisions for how, and to what degree, defensive measures such as redundancy, diversity, and defense in depth can be used to mitigate or eliminate the potential hazards of digital I&C systems.
Research Organization:
Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC07-05ID14517
OSTI ID:
1668835
Report Number(s):
INL/EXT-20-59550-Rev000
Journal Information:
Nuclear Technology, Journal Name: Nuclear Technology Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 208; ISSN 0029-5450
Publisher:
Taylor & Francis - formerly American Nuclear Society (ANS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (6)

Hazard analysis for identifying common cause failures of digital safety systems using a redundancy-guided systems-theoretic approach journal December 2020
Use of STPA as a diverse analysis method for optimization and design verification of digital instrumentation and control systems in nuclear power plants journal May 2018
An experimental evaluation of the assumption of independence in multiversion programming journal January 1986
A Benchmark System for Comparing Reliability Modeling Approaches for Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems journal January 2009
Lessons Learned from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Digital System Risk Research journal January 2011
Pra: a Perspective on Strengths, Current Limitations, and Possible Improvements journal February 2014

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Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
42 ENGINEERING
advanced nuclear power plants
digital instrumentation and control
hazard analysis
redundancy guided