Improving nuclear power plant safety and operating margins through linear quadratic estimation - 290

Conference · Thu Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2017

OSTI ID:23035396

Black, R. Steven ^[1]; Smith, Michael S. ^[2]

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1. AREVA Inc. 7207 IBM Dr., Charlotte, NC 28262 (United States)
2. AREVA Federal Services LLC 7207 IBM Dr., Charlotte, NC 28262 (United States)

Redundant measurement, trip, and actuation channels are required for reactor trips and engineered safety systems in nuclear power plants. There are three or four independent channels in existing plants, depending on the system. To prevent failures, consistent signals from any two channels together can trip the reactor or actuate safety systems. Measurements associated with safety trips and actuations include uncertainties related to the instruments making the measurements and to process conditions. Margins that include measurement uncertainties are set for each trip and actuation channel as though it were the only one taking action, thus preserving independence. There are sensors, however, that provide partially redundant information that could be used to decrease the uncertainty associated with measurements of plant conditions, while maintaining the three-channel redundancy important to plant safety. Reducing these uncertainties would both improve plant safety by providing more accurate knowledge of plant conditions and improve the operating margins that must take such uncertainties into account. This paper demonstrates how information that is already available to plant instrumentation and control systems and is already redundant can be used through software routines to reduce the error that must be taken into account in reactor trip and safety system actuation setpoints. Issues that would have to be addressed related to standards, licensing, and implementation are also discussed. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 23035396
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
COMPUTER CODES
ENGINEERED SAFETY SYSTEMS
ERRORS
IMPLEMENTATION
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
RADIATION PROTECTION
REACTOR CONTROL SYSTEMS
REACTOR LICENSING
REACTOR SAFETY
REDUNDANCY
SAFETY STANDARDS
SENSORS
SIGNALS