Electronic reliability and drift improvement for analog instrument and control systems

Nuclear plant instrument and control module and power supply performance was analyzed to identify improvements that could reduce the number of plant trips and reportable drift. In designing a module and power supply to demonstrate improvements, investigators applied electronic reliability prediction analysis and employed modern, military grade electronic components with established reliability. Estimated failure rates were improved by more than an order of magnitude. As demonstrated in tests, accuracy was also improved by more than an order of magnitude, and drift was virtually eliminated