Development of an operation support system for nuclear power plants

The development of a system is required, which gives operators an operation guide so as to be able to take the optimum measures if an accident unfortunately occurs in nuclear power plants as well as which makes operators exactly recognize plant conditions. The development of such a system was accepted as a subject to be introspected against the accident in Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, U.S.A., and the development has started in Europe and America. Under the above circumstances, three Japanese leading nuclear equipment manufacturer groups or six companies have organized the operation support system development association for nuclear power plants. Those have participated in the development as a 5-year program since 1980. Because the development is related to the improvement of the rate of operation and reliability of nuclear power plants the present status the results obtained for two years is reported. This system is divided into two systems, the instruction system and containment vessel automatic inspection system. In this paper, the outline and the features of these systems are described, especially four techniques in the instruction system, i.e. instruction, simulation, reactor anomaly diagnosing, and signal transmission and processing techniques, are explained. At present, the conceptual design and basic experiment have been completed for each theme, and the detailed design and manufacturing are in progress. (Wakatsuki, Y.)