Neutron Source Facility Training Simulator Based on EPICS

Conference · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2015

OSTI ID:1256302

Park, Young Soo; Wei, Thomas Y.; Vilim, Richard B.; Grelle, Austin L.; Dworzanski, Pawel L.; Gohar, Yousry

A plant operator training simulator is developed for training the plant operators as well as for design verification of plant control system (PCS) and plant protection system (PPS) for the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology Neutron Source Facility. The simulator provides the operator interface for the whole plant including the sub-critical assembly coolant loop, target coolant loop, secondary coolant loop, and other facility systems. The operator interface is implemented based on Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS), which is a comprehensive software development platform for distributed control systems. Since its development at Argonne National Laboratory, it has been widely adopted in the experimental physics community, e.g. for control of accelerator facilities. This work is the first implementation for a nuclear facility. The main parts of the operator interface are the plant control panel and plant protection panel. The development involved implementation of process variable database, sequence logic, and graphical user interface (GUI) for the PCS and PPS utilizing EPICS and related software tools, e.g. sequencer for sequence logic, and control system studio (CSS-BOY) for graphical use interface. For functional verification of the PCS and PPS, a plant model is interfaced, which is a physics-based model of the facility coolant loops implemented as a numerical computer code. The training simulator is tested and demonstrated its effectiveness in various plant operation sequences, e.g. start-up, shut-down, maintenance, and refueling. It was also tested for verification of the plant protection system under various trip conditions.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) - Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation - Office of Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1256302
• Resource Relation: Conference: 2015 American Nuclear Society Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC & HMIT) Conference, 02/22/15 - 02/26/15, Charlotte, NC
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English