FPGA-based I and C Systems: A Technological Trick or a way to improve NPPs Safety and Security?

The objective of this paper is to discuss advantages and values which Field Programmable Gates Array (FPGA) based solutions can add to Instrumentation and Control (I and C) design of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Application of FPGAs as programmable components instead of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) is an advanced solution which provides decreasing of software impact on potential common cause failures (CCF). There are the following such advantages: Implementation of safety functions without the use of any operation software and operating system, Flexibility of the I and C platform which can be configured for any type of functions and reactor designs, Reduction in the time necessary for software verification in the design phase, Easy modification of control logic without any need for hardware modification, Possibility of implementing all safety requirements in safety and safety-related I and C systems, Tolerance to internal failures and external environmental impacts, Resilience to obsolescence due to the portability of the Hardware Description Language (HDL) code between various FPGA-chips produced by different manufacturers, Reduction in Corby vulnerability