Instrumentation and control standardization in the ITER project

The ITER instrumentation and control (I&C) system is the term encompassing all hardware and software required to operate ITER. It has two levels of hierarchy: the central I&C systems and the plant systems I&C. The plant systems I&C consists of thousands of computers processing hundreds of thousands of signals. The plant systems I&C, being the hardware interfacing layer for operating the ITER machine, shall integrate, control and coordinate all these computers and signals and allow a limited number of staff to operate the ITER machine from a central location with minimum human intervention during experimental pulses and 24 h/7 day continuous operation. The procurement model, together with the current estimate of 161 plant systems I&C, poses a major challenge for the realization and integration of the ITER I&C systems. standardization of plant systems I&C is of primary importance and has been one of the highest priority tasks of CODAC by issuing the Plant Control Design Handbook (PCDH) to ensure ITER I&C systems will contribute and be instrumental in making ITER project a success. In this paper we will elaborate from a technical perspective on what the CODAC team defined in the current version of PCDH (v5) for this standardization process.