Roles of a physical simulator in I&C development for nuclear power plants

In this paper, advantages of a nuclear power simulator based on physical components to support I&C research and development are examined. From an I&C perspectives (low voltage, current and power), the simulator behaves as if the I&C system is connected to a real process. The simulator consists of 6 physical processes, and can be configured to form 15 different control loops to support various I&C testing situations. The simulator has been deliberately overly instrumented with 25 different industry-grade sensors and 30 industry-grade actuators so that it can be easily interconnected with external hardware control and instrumentation devices. This simulator allows researchers in the nuclear I&C field to test variety of instrumentation and control algorithms in a dynamic environment, similar to that encountered in a real nuclear power plant, in real-time. The biggest advantage of using physical simulator, as opposed to software based simulator, is that one does not have to deal with synchronous of timing between the simulator and the external control devices in the testing and validation process of control schemes. This simulator also facilitates development of new control and diagnostic schemes, e.g. smart sensors, applications of wireless sensor networks, in a dynamic environment. Our experience so far has indicated that such a simulator is a must-have item in research and development of I&C systems for nuclear power plants. (author)