Information integration in control rooms and technical offices in nuclear power plants. Report prepared within the framework of the International Working Group on Nuclear Power Plant Control and Instrumentation

The majority of the nuclear power plants in the world were designed 25 to 45 years ago. The information, instrumentation, safety, and control systems in these plant designs were based on analog, relay, and primitive digital technology. Computers that were available when most of the nuclear power plants were built were unsophisticated compared with those currently available. These less powerful machines with limited computational capabilities and memory were used to collect and store information. The main means for obtaining information from the plant were analog meters and strip chart recorders. In many cases these pieces of data had to be integrated and correlated with other data manually, in order to be usable. Procedures and plant information resided on paper only and were frequently hard to find and access in a timely manner. This report provides guidance to help with the integration of information in order to enhance the usability and usefulness of the information. It can also be used to help avoid the pitfalls that can occur when implementing new systems with respect to the information they need and produce. This reports philosophy is based on three important issues that allow the convenient structuring of the problem and to keep all of its important features. The first issue is the process of information systems integration and use. This is achieved by long term planning and the creation of the plant infrastructure plan. The second is to take care of the end users' needs in relation to their abilities. This is realized through analyses of user needs. Third is the design of the human-system interface (HSI), for example to distinguish between types of information for use in the plant control room and in technical offices. The development of this report was initiated by the IAEA International Working Group on Nuclear Power Plant Control and Instrumentation (IWG-NPPCI). It is a logical follow-up to IAEA-TECDOC-1016, Modernization of Instrumentation and Control in Nuclear Power Plants (1998). This report is intended typically for plant managers, project managers, Instrumentation and Control system designers, system engineers, operations managers, operators, and other plant information users. This report is the result of a series of consultants meetings held in Vienna (April 1999, March 2000, October 2000). It was prepared with the participation and contributions of experts from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Norway, Sweden and the United States of America. In addition, a related Specialists Meeting on Integrated Information Presentation in Control Rooms and Technical Offices at Nuclear Power Plants was held in Stockholm, Sweden in May 2000. The experts, with the help of an expert from Germany, incorporated some of the lessons learned in the meeting papers into this report