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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Latest News
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has since been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that Unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. local time on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
Takumi Uezono, Toru Motoya, Katsunobu Natori, Satoshi Nishikawa, Keisuke Yamamoto, Tomokazu Takahashi, Shohei Nakamura, Goro Suzuki (Hitachi)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 645-652
We propose a design and verification process for a hardware-resource-efficient FPGA-based functional safety controller. In order to reduce the hardware resources consumed by the NPP application, we developed a resource-sharing calculation architecture on the FPGA. Our designed FPGA-based controller utilizing our developed architecture is hard-wired, but can operate another function by replacing contents in the calculation control memory. Thus, our developed controller achieves both safety and flexibility. In addition, a data conversion tool from NPP application to calculation control data for our developed architecture is also developed. In the verification step, output data from our developed tool is verified by a process where that calculation control data is reversely-converted to the NPP application and checked whether it is equivalent with the original NPP application by the logical equivalence verification method. Our verification process makes it possible to apply formal verification method and achieve the SIL 4 compliant verification process for the FPGA-based controller for Class 1 I&C systems . Our proposed design and verification process was assessed by TÜV Rheinland and accepted as SIL 4 compliant.