[en] This conference on reliability and safety engineering covered topics relevant to big data analytics, critical reliability and maintenance, design and reliability, diagnostics and prognostics of mechanical system, health monitoring and management using multi sensors, optimization and machine learning techniques for industrial applications, performance, failure analysis of materials in service, reliability issues in electrical distribution systems and software reliability. Papers relevant to INIS are indexed separately

[en] Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) are channel type reactors and a typical reactor is having more than 300 channels with two temperature measurements per channel. In certain cases, degradation of the channel temperature monitoring sensors has been reported. These degradations results in availability factor of the reactors. Thus, root cause analysis for the sensor degradation has been carried out. Further, in order to ascertain no degradations in the future, certain improvements are suggested in the sensor design. This paper elaborates the nature of the degradations, root cause for the degradations and suggested modifications based on the analysis in order to improve reliability of the measurements. (author)

[en] Following major test facilities are available in BARC for ageing studies of Equipment and Cables for Nuclear Power Plants; Radiation Test Facility (Gamma Chamber), Thermal Ageing Test Facilities (Ambient to 300°C, Provision is to monitor on-line performance test parameters of items being tested inside the test chambers, Multifunction Calibrator, Pneumatic and Hydraulic Test Pumps and Pressure Gauges, regulators and Indicators along with Mimic Panel, Insulation Resistance (IR) Tester etc.

[en] In nuclear reactors, there are large number flow, level, pressure and differential pressure measurements using pressure sensing. Pressure transmitters are especially used for these measurements which accepts a process signal as input and gives electronic signal output. From accessibility and maintenance point of view, the transmitters are located away from the process measurement points and the impulse lines as long as 100 meters are used to extend the signals upto the transmitters. It is reported that these impulse lines are one of the major cause of degradation of the associated measurements. The impulse lines like blockages, accumulation of voids in the lines and leakages mainly degrades the measurements, a major reliability concern of the measurements. This paper covers the review of the research on the subject a well as further research for the impulse line fault diagnostics and early detection of the deterioration of the measurements. The intention of the research is to improve reliability of the measurements by early detection of impulse line related faults. The research is focussed on Statistical parameters like skewness, kurtosis in-conjunction with wavelets and other signal processing tools. (author)

[en] Nuclear reactors generate tremendous amount of thermal energy and radioactivity due to fission reactions. Safety is in general an important aspect for any industry; however, the main safety concern from a Nuclear Reactor is the emission of uncontrolled radiation into the environment which could cause harm to humans both at the reactor site and off-site during an accident. There have been three major reactor accidents in the history of civil nuclear power releasing radioactivity to environment- Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. To avoid these accidents in future, the demand for safety in Nuclear installations have become more important. Nuclear industry from these accidents has learned and taken stringent steps towards ensuring a better reliability of safety systems that ensure cooling of reactor and fuel storage pond, shutting down of reactor and containing the radioactivity. Plant experience indicates that quality assurance during design, procurement, operation, maintenance, surveillance and human resource management have a direct bearing on the reliability of these safety systems. Based on a philosophy that effective quality assurance is inseparably linked to the fostering of an excellent safety culture and ensuring reliability, the implementation of quality management system based on IAEA standard is needed to achieve the desired safety and reliability objective. This paper presents the detailed activities carried out in quality assurance programme in a nuclear reactor to enhance the safety and reliability of nuclear reactor safety systems. (author)

[en] The use of state of art digital instrumentation and control (I and C) in safety and safety related systems (like reactor power regulation, reactor shutdown etc.) in nuclear power plants has gained importance due to the performance in terms of accuracy, computational capabilities and data archiving capability for future diagnosis. Added advantages in computer based systems are fault tolerance, self-testing, signal validation capability and process system diagnostics. But, uncertainty exists about the quality, reliability, performance and security of such software based nuclear instrumentation which poses new challenges for the nuclear industry and regulators in using them for safety and safety related systems. Therefore, it becomes mandatory to demonstrate that these systems are reliable, safe and secure. To obtain adequate confidence in licensing them for use in NPPs, digital I and C were deployed gradually from monitoring system to control system (i.e. non-safety, safety related and lastly safety systems). Based upon the experience over a decade, AERB safety guide AERB/SG/D-25 was prepared to prescribe the criteria and requirements to assess the qualitative reliability of digital I and C. The detail regulatory requirements for the use of FPGA and CPLD in nuclear applications are being worked out for addition in this document. This paper elaborates gradual deployment of digital I and C system in Indian NPPs. It covers the AERB approach for regulatory review and audit process for digital I and C as recommended in AERB safety guide AERB/SG/D-25. Further, aspects like Configuration Management (due to operation feedback, introduction of additional features and obsolescence), use of software developer tools and security of the digital I and C systems are mentioned. (author)