R2.01/05 - Establishment of a 'Branch diagnostics System' in Concern Rosenergoatom

Applied diagnostic systems are those ones in a nuclear power plant (NPP) that assist the plant operator in determining the status of systems, structures and components important to safety during all modes of plant operation. Applied diagnostic systems, like leak, vibration or displacement monitoring systems, are essential in detecting the potential failure of machinery in time to permit corrective action before the safety margins are compromised.
Russian NPPs have implemented various types of diagnostic and load monitoring devices and systems. They have been either permanently installed at specific equipment (e.g. vibration monitoring on RCP, turbine generator, diesel generators) or have been just portable devices used for monitoring of specific components’ parameters. Data from individual systems were produced in different format and have not been input into common plant information systems.
The exchange of diagnostic information and decision making in Russia has been carried out at the level of each individual NPP. EU experience has shown that establishment of a specialized Diagnostic Centre, collecting and processing diagnostic information coming from the individual NPPs, could help analysing the diagnostic data and proposing solutions to revealed actual or potential problems.
Russia has therefore requested technical assistance from the EU in the support of the project that would involve development and implementation of a communication system that would connect the individual plant diagnostic systems with a common on-site diagnostic database and with the Diagnostic Centre of the Concern Rosenergoatom.

The project has been aimed at developing a modular communication structure incorporating the individual plant diagnostic systems and the Diagnostic Centre (forming a “branch diagnostic system”). This system has to be able to collect data from the applied diagnostic systems installed at the pilot NPP, transfer them through specialized software and existing information and communication links to the diagnostic centre in Moscow for further analysis and decision making about the component health, degradation and corrective measures.
Kalinin NPP that has acquired large experience from implementing diagnostic and maintenance projects was selected as a pilot NPP for this project.

The project has been implemented in 28 months from 19 January 2009 to 19 May 2011. The Consultant was the TES s.r.o. company (Czech Rep.).The subcontractor to the Consultant was the VNIIAES institute (Russia).
According to the ToR, the project work had to be implemented in the following main tasks:

• Transfer to the beneficiary of up-to-date know how on applied diagnostic systems used in EU utilities
• Development of Branch Diagnostic System (BDS) model

Within the first task, the Consultant reviewed the status of the diagnostic and communication systems at the KlnNPP and at the Concern Rosenergoatom and presented multilevel diagnostic systems used at NPPs in France and Czech Republic. Based on these activities, the Consultant proposed:

• techniques of diagnostic data transfer;
• techniques and means of information security;
• specific hardware and software to be used for BDS;
• procedures of verification and validation (V&V) of the SW application.

Within the second task, the Consultant identified the scope of equipment and monitored parameters to be included in the BDS. He designed the BDS (database structure, communication SW and HW specifications, man-machine interface, communication security), developed the BDS software application and installed it at the hardware provided by the Beneficiary.

The main BDS has encompassed the following main features:

• BDS communicates with various existing local diagnostic systems and obtains data from them
• BDS unifies and integrates data for subsequent transfer and processing
• BDS stores and presents data to experts for further analysis

BDS application SW has been developed on the platform of Wonderware software products encompassing components for data collection, processing, storing and presentation. Interconnected Historian servers and BDS workstations have been newly installed at the KlnNPP 2 and in the Diagnostic Centre in VNIIAES Moscow. The BDS has included also additional data handling functions, an alarm system providing warnings on deviations from normal parameter values and visualisation of monitored equipment with status, online diagnostic parameters and parameter trends. BDS can process both on-line and off-line data (including possible insertion of data from portable measurement devices). Exact time synchronization of individual BDS computers has been ensured by NTP protocol. The BDS has mostly used the existing plant hardware, the local computer networks and the communication lines between the KlnNPP and the Concern Rosenergoatom headquarters offices.

A schematic diagram of the BDS layout is attached.

The development activities have been complemented by personnel training and preparation of user’s and maintenance manuals. Training in BDS design and applications took place at Kalinin NPP and Moscow Crisis Centre from February 28 – March 11, 2011. The training was finished by the general diagnostic training in April 2011.
The project results have been disseminated at the final meeting held in Moscow on 12 and 13 April 2011. The meeting included live demonstration of the BDS capabilities. BDS model functions and information exchange between the BDS and Kalinin NPP were demonstrated to the Beneficiary staff.

Conclusions

The project has been successfully completed and all project objectives have been fully met. At the time of writing this description (December 2011), a single module of the system is in trial operation at the central diagnostic laboratory of Concern Rosnergoatom located at VNIIAES (Moscow) and at the Kalinin 2 NPP diagnostic laboratory. Rosenergoatom prepares extension of BDS to Kalinin NPP Unit 4 and Rostov NPP Units 1, 2 during 2012. Remaining Russian NPPs will be connected to the BDS in the following years.