DEVELOPING SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR DIGITAL INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL (DI&C) SYSTEM OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

As Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) adopted software-based Digital Instrumentation and Control (DI&C) System, the Software Configuration Management (SCM) is becoming more and more important for NPP. The main reason is the inherent changeability and invisibility which of software often causes unpredictable problems and results are difficult to manage. In addition, the DI&C system has always been constructed by multiple vendors and each vendor of the DI&C has its own development artifacts. Therefore, it is great challenge for NPP staff to maintain the consistency and integrity of software Configuration Items (CI) among multiple vendors. The software CIs include software products delivered to customers and items required to create the software products such as software design document, source code, database, test report, compiler, etc. In general, Software Configuration Management System (SCMS) is usually developed to support SCM activities, such as storing CI, controlling change, and accounting and auditing throughout the entire software lifecycle. However, most existing file-based SCMS typically deal with those artifacts of individual files without providing the more detailed configuration and change information among CIs. Based on the nuclear SCM related regulations, this paper proposes a developing SCMS for the DI&C system of a NPP. Its main goal is to meet the regulatory requirements, and enhance the visibility, tractability and integrate ability to manage the heterogeneous subsystems within the DI&C system. This paper provides the more detailed descriptions about regulation requirements analysis, system design and the development process. Finally, a prototype system is presented.