48
NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, January-February 2016
step in the procedure is completed, it
allows the user to move to the next step.
Embedded in the procedure is a fully
independent verification that both avoids
the need to dispatch a second person later
and catches rare-but-inevitable human
errors for better reliability. Because the
procedure is driven by tablet software, no
paperwork is required.
At the Bellefonte station, researchers
tested procedures on gate valves,
butterfly valves, lighting panel switches,
and motor control center breakers. In
each procedure, the prototype accurately
verified the component’s status.
Refining the Verifier
EPRI is conducting a second test
phase at Duke Energy’s Catawba Nuclear
Station in 2015 to investigate the use of
video. The verifier moves the tablet’s
video camera 360 degrees around a
component and processes the video into
a three-dimensional representation of
the component. The software compares
this image with the reference model
to determine the component’s open or
closed status.
Also, researchers plan to make the
system fully portable and self-contained,
eliminating the need to be docked to a
separate laptop to run the verification
software. They want to investigate the
economic feasibility of building a digital
library of three-dimensional reference
shapes of thousands of plant components
potentially requiring verification.
If a workable device is commercial-
ized, human verifiers will be among the
key beneficiaries. “We respect radiation,”
said David Ziebell, EPRI senior techni-
cal leader. “If we send somebody out to
containment to do a valve alignment, that
person’s going to absorb dose. If we send
a second person out to verify, that per-
son’s also going to absorb dose. If we can
reduce that, that’s a win for all involved.”
The above documents were reprinted
from the EPRI Journal with permission
from EPRI. To subscribe, go to
www.
eprijournal.com
If you would like to
contact the technical staff for more
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.
Research &
Development...
New Documents...
owing to the inability to directly inspect
this piping and because of the potential
impact on the environment and public
confidence if leakage occurred.
After the initiative was approved,
additional operating experience showed
that piping that is below grade and not
in direct contact with the soil, as well
as underground tanks, can degrade with
similar potential adverse consequences.
As a result, the Underground Piping and
Tanks Integrity Initiative (UPTI) was
developed to incorporate and expand on
the Buried Piping Integrity Initiative.
The UPTI focuses on assessing in-
scope components to provide reasonable
assurance of their continued structural
and leakage integrity, with special
emphasis on piping and tanks which
contain licensed materials. This Technical
Update provides insight as to how a
sample of utilities are implementing their
UPTI programs.
5.
Program on Technology Innovation:
Cyber
Hazards
Analysis
Risk
Methodology, Phase II: A Risk Informed
Approach
. Product ID: 3002004997.
Published December, 2015.
U.S. nuclear power licensees
currently identify critical digital assets
and apply cyber security controls using
a variety of regulatory commitments and
expert opinions. As a result, licensees
have adopted strategies that may result
in the selection of controls that are not
aligned with real cyber risk. For example,
a nuclear plant might not identify a
non-safety digital controller as a critical
cyber security digital asset, even though
this controller, if compromised, could
potentially trip the plant. Conversely,
a plant might devote an unwarranted
amount of resources to applying or
justifying cyber security controls for
an isolated safety-related system with
low risk significance. As a follow-up to
the Phase I report investigating hazard
analysis methods, this report documents
a notional consequence-based cyber
security analysis and its application to a
model digital control system that might
be found in a nuclear power plant.
6.
Technologies
for
Enhancing
Verifiability of Embedded I&C Systems
in Nuclear Power: A Survey of Advanced
FPGA and MEMs Technologies
. Product
ID: 3002005369. Published December,
2015.
Software based embedded I&C
systems used for safety critical nuclear
power applications have faced challenges
in establishing the integrity of the design
and implementation. This is due to the
difficulty in verifying that no common
cause software hazards exist and that
the software functions correctly during
all possible scenarios. While there is
extensive ongoing research in the software
verification topical area, this project
explores alternate technologies that are
available that may be used to reduce the
verification burden by changing the device
and systems architecture away from
general purpose processors and software
based applications. Alternative hardware
based architectures could be used to
allow deterministic verification of system
and device behaviors. Deterministic
Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
and Micro-Electromechanical Systems
(MEMS) are explored for use in this
demanding area. Specifically surveyed
were two technology areas that are
potential alternatives to traditional PLC
based approaches:
IEC 61131 Function Block Centric
Hardware Technology
Micro/Nano
Electro-Mechanical
devices for I&C
Selected research efforts on these
two technology areas from a perspective
of (1) potential for reducing functional
complexity as compared to software
based I&C systems, and (2) Supporting
tools, frameworks and standards required
as inferred by the survey results were
reviewed. The aim of this report is to
provide a broad and deep reporting with
respect to the two technology areas
surveyed.
The above EPRI documents may be
ordered by contacting the Order Center
at (800) 313-3774, Option 2, or email at
