Nuclear power plant transient diagnostics using artificial neural networks that allow ''don't-know'' classifications

A nuclear power plant's (NPP's) status is usually monitored by a human operator. Any classifier system used to enhance the operator's capability to diagnose a safety-critical system like an NPP should classify a novel transient as ''don't-know'' if it is not contained within its accumulated knowledge base. In particular, the classifier needs some kind of proximity measure between the new data and its training set. Artificial neural networks have been proposed as NPP classifiers, the most popular ones being the multilayered perceptron (MLP) type. However, MLPs do not have a proximity measure, while learning vector quantization, probabilistic neural networks (PNNs), and some others do. This proximity measure may also serve as an explanation to the classifier's decision in the way that case-based-reasoning expert systems do. The capability of a PNN network as a classifier is demonstrated using simulator data for the three-loop 436-MW(electric) Westinghouse San Onofre unit 1 pressurized water reactor. A transient's classification history is used in an ''evidence accumulation'' technique to enhance a classifier's accuracy as well as its consistency