General Provisions

Background

Formation of a new scientific and technical trend is nearly always followed with discussions, occurred due to initial uncertainty of used terminology. I&C systems intended for nuclear power plants are not an exception. There are several glossaries related to this trend, in particular: Rosenberg & Bobryakov, 2003; IAEA, 2007,a developed by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); IEC, 2007, developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). In the book IAEA, 2011, prepared by an international group of specialists under the auspices of the IAEA, general concepts applicable to NPP I&C systems, and introductory description of I&C systems and their life cycle are considered. Moreover, in many international and national regulatory documents related to individual tasks of design and/or operation of NPP I&C systems definitions of used terms are provided.

However, the terminology regulated in Ukrainian regulations, rules and standards can be unknown to readers of the book, so in the first chapter some terms, used in other chapters, are defined and supplied with annotations. In particular, the concept of “Instrumentation and control systems” that is traditionally used in Ukraine in narrower sense than in international standards and English literature, where this term, depending on context, can cover not only individual I&C systems, but also the overall set of such systems, controlling a certain object or, by contrast, only central part of individual I&C system and also equipment (hardware, integrated with software), developed and/or produced and supplied for implementation of the central part of individual I&C systems, is considered. For such equipment the authors use the term “Software-hardware complex” (SHC) that does not have an analogue in international standards, but is widely used by Ukrainian experts, and it is embodied in Ukrainian national standards (and some other countries) and in literature, for example, in Yastrebenetsky, 2004.

This fact necessitates detailed consideration of the concept, denoted by the term SHC, peculiarities that distinguish it from the individual I&C system, and differences between SHCs as industrial production products, in the first chapter.

Software of modern distributed overall I&C systems significantly differs from the one that was used in centralized systems of previous generation: it is concentrated mainly in SHC and integrated with hardware directly at the plant that design, manufactures and and/or supplies Software-hardware complex, but not at the facility (NPP), where the system will be operated. These and other differences important for understanding of further book content are also considered in the chapter.

From the beginning of creation and use of software-hardware complexes in Ukraine intended for individual I&C systems, a principle of assembling (aggregation) such SHC from a limited set of parts (hardware, software), composing an aggregate equipment family, oriented at solving I&C tasks typical for a sufficiently wide range of objects in one or several branches of industry, was applied. As far as all I&C systems, described in the book, are designed on the basis of such equipment families (platforms), general information about these platforms and also those similar equipment families, developed in other countries, are provided

In the chapter at the beginning of the book, the authors decided to describe their vision of development trends of I&C systems, which are implemented in practice in the modernization of current and designing of new systems for Ukrainian NPPs.