Application of Mini-Computers to Testing of Safety Systems

The proliferation of nuclear power plants and their siting nearer to populated areas has demanded ever increasing reliability in their safety systems. Our industry has met these demands in design and construction areas through separations criteria, redundant systems and high level quality assurance programs. Design and construction reliability, however, is only as good as its continued verification of operational integrity. This places the continued and real burden of testing on the operating utilities. The complexity of these separated/redundant systems makes this testing not only more difficult, but more necessary and therefore more frequently conducted. This discussion explores the potential use of dedicated self-checking mini-computers to reduce the operating manpower requirements to conduct this testing, to minimize the test intervals and to enhance overall safety system reliability.