Development methodologies for a nuclear safety display system

The safety display of a nuclear safety system of Advanced Power Reactor 1400(APR1400) has been rated as important to safety grade (SIL 3: Safety Integrity Level 3) [1]. Recently, the regulatory agencies are taking stronger position on safety requirements for safety display system (SDS). To satisfy these requirements, it is necessary to develop a safety critical (SIL 4) grade display system. This paper presents the result of a feasibility study on two methodologies for safety critical display software development based on industrial personal computer platform. One methodology is an SDS with safety critical grade certifiable operating system and display application developed using commercial development tools that depend on designated graphic libraries. The other is a SDS with safety critical grade certifiable operating system and display software that is independent of Open-GL (Graphic Library) or other vendor specific graphic libraries. In addition, this paper describes the pros and cons of two development methodologies for securing a nuclear power plant safety critical display system. (author)