English for Specific Purposes

66 Electronic Engineering

 

SPECIALIST READING B: Instrumentation and Control Systems in Nuclear Power Plants

 

14. Read the text and find out what are the peculiarities of instrumentation and control systems in power plants. Then reread the text to complete the following chart with relevant information:

 

I&S system as nervous system of NPP

 

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I&S system constituents

 

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I&S system functions

 

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I&S system future designs

 

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The instrumentation and control (I&C) system architecture, together with plant operations personnel, serves as the "central nervous system" of a nuclear power plant (NPP). Through its various constituent elements (e.g., equipment, modules, sensors, transmitters, redundancies, actuators, etc.), the plant I&C system senses basic physical parameters, monitors performance, integrates information, and makes automatic adjustments to plant operations as necessary. It also responds to failures and off-normal events, thus ensuring goals of efficient power production and safety. Essentially, the purpose of the I&C system architecture at an NPP is to enable and ensure safe and reliable power generation.

 

Nuclear power plants (NPPs) rely on I&C systems for protection, control, supervision and monitoring. A typical unit has approximately 10 000 sensors and detectors and 5000 km of I&C cables. The total mass of I&C related components is on the order of 1000 tonnes. This makes the I&C system one of the heaviest and most extensive non-building structures in any nuclear power plant.

 

The nuclear industry modernizes existing analog I&C systems to digital I&C, as well as implements new digital I&C systems in new plants. The increased functionality of the new digital I&C systems can also open up new possibilities to better support the operation and maintenance activities in the plant. In Russia, Kalinin-3, which was commissioned in 2004, is the first NPP equipped with digital I&C safety systems and digital process control systems. In addition, both its main and emergency control rooms have hybrid human-system interfaces.

 

I&C systems affect every aspect of plant operation. Their components and functions include the following:

 

a) sensors interfacing with the physical processes within a plant and continuously taking measurements of plant variables such as neutron flux, temperature, pressure and flow; b) control,