PLANT MODERNIZATION
This research pathway will address aging and long-term reliability issues of
the legacy II&C systems used in the current LWR fleet by demonstrating new
technologies and operational concepts in actual nuclear power plant settings.
This approach drives the following two important outcomes:
Reduces the technical, financial, and regulatory risk of upgrading the aging
II&C systems to support extended plant life to and beyond 60 years.
Provides the technological foundation for a transformed nuclear power
plant-operating model that improves plant performance and addresses the
challenges of the future business environment.
The research program is being conducted in close cooperation with the nuclear
utility industry to ensure that it is responsive to the challenges and
opportunities in the present operating environment. The scope of the research
program is to develop a seamless integrated digital environment as the basis of
the new operating model.
A Utility Working Group composed of leading nuclear utilities across the
industry (representing 70% of the existing LWR fleet) and Electric Power
Research Institute advises the program. The Utility Working Group developed a
consensus vision of how a more integrated approach to modernizing plant II&C
systems could address a number of challenges to the long-term sustainability of
the LWR fleet. A strategy was developed to transform the nuclear power plant
operating model by first defining a future state of plant operations and support
based on advanced technologies and then developing and demonstrating the needed
technologies to individually transform the plant work activities. The collective
work activities were grouped into the following major areas of enabling
capabilities:
Human performance improvement for nuclear power plant field workers
Outage safety and efficiency
Online monitoring and information integration
Integrated operations
Automated plant
Hybrid control room
In each of these areas, a series of pilot projects are planned that enable
the development and deployment of new II&C technologies in existing nuclear
power plants. A pilot project is an individual demonstration that is part of a
larger strategy needed to achieve modernization according to a plan. Note that
pilot projects have value on their own, as well as collectively. A pilot project
is small enough to be undertaken by a single utility, it demonstrates a key
technology or outcome required to achieve success in the higher strategy, and it
supports scaling that can be replicated and used by other plants. Through the
LWRS Program, individual utilities and plants are able to participate in these
projects or otherwise leverage the results of projects conducted at
demonstration plants.
The pilot projects conducted through this pathway serve as stepping-stones to
achieve longer-term outcomes of sustainable II&C technologies. They are
designed to emphasize success in some crucial aspect of plant technology
refurbishment and sustainable modernization. They provide the opportunity to
develop and demonstrate methods to technology development and deployment that
can be broadly standardized and leveraged by the commercial nuclear power fleet.
Each of the research and development activities in this pathway achieves a part
of the longer-term goals of safe and cost-effective sustainability. They are
limited in scope so they can be undertaken and implemented in a manner that
minimizes technical and regulatory risk. In keeping with best industry
practices, prudent change management dictates that new technologies are
introduced slowly so that they can be validated within the nuclear safety
culture model.
Prior to the time the individual pilot projects are scheduled to begin,
members of the Utility Working Group are solicited to serve as host utilities
for the research and development activities in which the new technologies are
demonstrated and validated for production usage.
Human Systems Simulation Laboratory
The
Human Systems Simulation Laboratory at Idaho National Laboratory is used to
conduct research in the design and evaluation of hybrid control rooms,
integration of control room, development and piloting of human-centered design
activities with operating crews, and visualizations of different end state
operational concepts. This facility consists of a reconfigurable simulator that
supports human factors research, including human-in-the-loop performance,
human-system interfaces, and can incorporate mixtures of analog and digital
hybrid displays and controls. It is applicable to the development and evaluation
of control systems and displays of nuclear power plant control rooms, and other
command and control systems. The Human Systems Simulation Laboratory will be
used to study human performance in a near-realistic operational context for
advanced nuclear power plant control room design.
Cyber Security
Cyber security is recognized as a major
concern in implementing advanced digital II&C technologies in nuclear power
plants in view of the considerable security requirements necessary to protect
these facilities from potential adversaries, as well as protect
company-proprietary information. The members of the Utility Working Group have
expressed the need to ensure that cyber security vulnerabilities are not
introduced through adoption of these advanced digital technologies. Furthermore,
these utilities have internal cyber security policies and regulatory obligations
that must be upheld during implementation of the project technologies.
Contribution to Industry Consensus Guidelines
To ensure
appropriate transfer of technology to the nuclear power industry, guidelines
documents will be published for each of the areas of enabling capabilities,
incorporating the specific technologies and technical reports produced under
each of the pilot projects for the respective areas. Electric Power Research
Institute has agreed to assume responsibility for development and publication of
these guidelines, using their standard methods and utility interfaces to develop
the documents and validate them with industry. The Advanced II&C Systems
Technologies Pathway will support this effort by providing the relevant
information and participating in the development activities.