Electronics, achievements and prospects in nuclear power

This contribution presents a historical overlook of the achievements in the field of electronics recorded by the Electronics Division of the INR. A first step was installing the machine EUROPRIM for circuitry printing, the wire-wrapping equipment, the facility for evacuation-filling used in radiation detector manufacturing as well as the measuring and control electronic equipment. Development of digital electronic and microprocessors were quickly assimilated in Electronics Division. Two models of modular microprocessors were realised almost simultaneously with similar equipment from abroad. On this basis automation equipment has been realised as well as process and applications software. As major changes occurred in the last decade in the electronic component industry and as the digital signal processing became predominant in the offer, the Electronics Division activity concentrated predominantly upon developing process software. At present the activity in the Electronics Division is oriented towards three direction: process systems and equipment, instruments and control equipment and nuclear technique applications. The report contains a long list of systems, equipment and devices for measuring and control, applied at Cernavoda NPP, mainly but also at other nuclear facilities, environmental monitoring units or power systems in Romania. Also, presented are the achievements in the field of radiation measuring equipment, as for instance, gamma ionization chambers for high and low level activities, high sensitivity fission chambers, un-compensated boron ionization chambers and others. Also, mentioned are the studies and theoretical research, relating to the transient regime of the nuclear power station, a study about information display, allowing interacting communication, designed to the efficient evaluation of the environmental impact of different aspects of radioactive waste disposal, as well as a study concerning the effects of measuring and control instrument ageing upon the NPP safety