NUCLEAR-POWER-PLANT AUTOMATION ISSUES

Nuclear power plants are less automated than many industrial processes. Presently, the controls and instrumentation technology utilized in U.S. plants is more than twenty years old. The evolutionary trend in the U.S., Europe and Japan is toward incorporation of more modern technology and automation. The author discusses issues which are currently being faced by designers of computer-based protection, control and information systems for nuclear power plants. These issues are grouped into categories of human-machine roles and interfaces, control strategies, hardware and software design considerations, verification and validation, and life cycle maintenance.