Modelling of FPGA-based Reactor Protection Systems of an Experimental Power Reactor

Abstract

Abstract The reactor protection system of nuclear power plants including an experimental power reactor which will be built by Indonesia is a safety system that actuates the control rods to be inserted in the reactor core to absorb the neutron to stop the fission reaction and then shut down the reactor (reactor trip). The reactor protection system (RPS) is actuated when the level of signals from the sensors of important components in the reactors deviates from the setpoint determined in the bi-stable processor of the RPS. RPS for the experimental power reactor has 3 redundant channels for reliability and to minimize fake signals from the sensors due to electrical noise. It can be done by selecting the channels in local coincidence logic in the RPS by voting 2 of 3 channels which are eligible to generate actuation signals to trip the reactor. Recently, the RPSs are based on the programmable logic controller (PLC). However, now the trend changes to FPGA-based RPS because of its simplicity and reliability. This paper investigates the model of the FPGA-based RPS for an experimental power reactor and the functionality of each component of the model. The results show that the model can represent the functionality of RPS for the experimental power reactor.