THE COMPUTERIZATION OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANT CONTROL ROOMS

In the past decade, there has been a growing need to address obsolescence, improve human performance, and to comply with increasingly stringent regulation requirements. The needs to use computers arise in the on-line, real-time processes of control and protection, alarm detection and display in the control rooms, and in the on-line assessment of processes needed for operation of a power reactor. In addition, they arise equally in the semi on-line operation needed for daily or hourly assessment of operation; for example, monitoring of detailed reactor flux distributions, etc. As a result, NPPs have implemented plans to replace ageing analogue systems with digital systems and have developed comprehensive and accessible information database and management systems. These systems support operations for an overall improvement in quality assurance and productivity. Advances in information and communication technology have been proven to help utilities operate power plants more efficiently by integrating computer resources and increasing the availability of information to meet NPP staff needs and corporate business strategy [1-3].