Development of the test simulator for advanced instrumentation and control research

It is necessary to adopt digital technology for instrumentation and control systems to be designed in the near future. However, in applying the digital technology to nuclear power plants, we should ensure that it does not endanger the safety and reliability of the plant. Verification and validation of the function and performance of digital system should be done before installation in NPPs. The objective of instrumentation and control test simulator is to validate newly developed digital control and protection algorithm, alarm reduction algorithm, and the performance of operator support system, etc. The Test simulator software consists of mathematical modeling which simulates 3 loop pressurizer water reactor, 993 MWe Westinghouse plant and supervisory program that comprises ail the instructions necessary to run the test simulator. The Hardware equipment provides interface between host computer and simple test panel or developed target systems to be tested. The Interface module can provide Ethernet or VXI interface to developed prototype using shared memory and also provide the display page for the value of simulated variables. Graphic user interface supports an easy and friendly interface between test simulator and users. Graphic user interface developed using Picasso-3 graphic tool developed by the Halden Reactor Project. Test simulator applied to advanced instrumentation and control prototype to test its performance and shown a good operation performance in nounal operating and transient conditions.