Vietnam: The measurement equipment must provide sufficient information to monitor the plant state

According to Article 45 of Circular No. 30/2012/TT-BKHCN of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, the measurement systems must be capable of determining the values of key parameters that could affect the fission process, the integrity of the reactor core, the reactor coolant system and the containment in order to ensure the reliable operation and safety of the nuclear power plant, determining the nuclear power plant in accident conditions, and making decisions for the purposes of accident management. The measurement equipment must provide sufficient information to monitor the plant state and the course of accidents, to predict the locations of release and the amount of radioactive material that could be released and for post-accident analysis.

Besides, the control systems must be reliable and suitable for limiting the relevant process variables within the specified operational ranges.

Moreover, the protection system must:

- Be capable of detecting the unsafe conditions and activating safety systems automatically to achieve and maintain the safety conditions for the nuclear power plant;

- Be capable of overriding the unsafe actions of the control systems;

- Be capable of recovering the safety conditions of the plant even in the event of failure of the protection system itself;

- Be capable of activating the safety system, maintaining the automated actions within an appropriate period of time after the occurrence of abnormal operation or accident conditions before the intervention by operators;

- Provide information for operators for monitoring the effects of automatic actions.

Concurrently, the design must be able to prevent the operators from compromising the effectiveness of the protection system, but must not impede the correct actions of operators 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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