Vietnam: The control system in a nuclear power plant must automatically report errors

According to Article 48 of Circular No. 30/2012/TT-BKHCN of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, the measurement and control systems for items important to safety shall be designed for high reliability and periodic testability commensurate with their safety functions. The measurement and control systems must be designed to facilitate the test, automatically notify system failures, and automatically justify failures; must be provided with functional diversity and diversity in concepts of operation to ensure the fulfillment of safety functions in any situation.

The safety system must be designed to permit periodic testing of their functionality when the plant is in operation, including the possibility of testing channels independently for the detection of failures and sufficient redundancy; to permit The design shall permit testing of the functions of the sensor, the input signal, the actuation mechanism, and the display. When a safety system, or part of a safety system, has to be taken out of service for testing, clear directives on this suspension for testing must be provided.

Moreover, according to Article 49 of Circular No. 30/2012/TT-BKHCN, if a system important to safety is dependent on computer-based equipment, appropriate provisions for the development and testing of computer hardware and software shall be established and implemented throughout the lifetime of the system, especially the relation to software development. The entire development shall be subject to a quality management system. The computer-based equipment in systems important to safety and safety related systems must:

- Use software and hardware of high quality commensurate with the importance of the system to safety;

- Have the entire design process, including the control, testing, and commissioning of design changes systematically documented. These documents must be regularly reviewed;

- Be assessed by the experts who are independent from the design team and providers to ensure the high reliability;

- Apply the principle of diverse design to equipment important to safety of which the high reliability is not clearly justified;

- Take due account of common cause failures derived from computer software;

- Be protected against damage when the system operation is interfered with or in accident conditions.

View details at Circular No. 30/2012/TT-BKHCN of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, effective from February 11, 2013.

Le Vy

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