Advanced alarm management in the AWARE system

Westinghouse is currently constructing and installing the AWARE alarm system for a Swiss utility. This system, which utilizes a novel conceptual approach to achieve the level of effectiveness required for a nuclear power plant, alarm management system, will be an integral part of an extensive control room upgrade to the utility. AWARE is designed to eliminate the alarm 'avalanche' problem associated with major off-normal events, but will maintain the sensitivity necessary to support minor disturbances. This is accomplished by the use of expert-specified alarm logic, alarm prioritization according to the plant's functional organization, and computer presentation of the alarm messages. The AWARE system employs a redundant, UNIX-workstation-based, distributed computer architecture to achieve high reliability and state-of-the-art performance. The alarm logic algorithms, prioritization rules, and alarm messages are represented as data within the system and are easily maintained by the plant's operating staff. >