Major nuclear fuel and Kudankulam power plant safety tests are being conducted by India and Russia

Major nuclear fuel and Kudankulam power plant safety tests are being conducted by India and Russia

Rusatom Automated Control Systems JSC (RASU JSC, a company of Russia State Corporation) and representatives of Nuclear energy nuclear power company of India LTD (NPCIL) tested the In-Core Instrumentation System (ICIS) and Systems for Integrated Analysis (SIA) in Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant NPP Unit 3 in a significant technical development.

The manufacturer, Superior Scientific Research Institute for Instrumentation Engineering (SNIIP JSC, a business under the direction of RASU JSC), conducted acceptance testing and thorough integration tests on-site. The first subsystems to acquire a readiness certification were SIA and ICIS. Equipment in these systems guarantees

Information on the reactor's condition is collected, analyzed, and sent to the MCR (main control room).

Before the end of 2023, the equipment will be transferred to the Kudankulam NPP site in Tamil Nadu, India, after the testing.

"Reactor monitoring, control, and diagnostic system (MCDS) is made up of all of these subsystems. They guarantee the nuclear plant's monitoring and management in various operating modes and have a project-specific design that takes into consideration the technical aspects of the upcoming power unit and the needs of the client. of this instance, the VVER-1000 reactors of Kudankulam NPP Units 3 and 4 are the intended users of the equipment, according to Dmitry Kukushkin, Head of Kudankulam NPP I&C Project Office, RASU JSC.

Nearly 20 years ago, Kudankulam NPP Units 1 and 2 installed similar equipment built in collaboration with NRC Kurchatov Institute, and it has been successfully working ever since.

The In-Core Instrumentation System (ICIS) is the primary component guaranteeing the monitoring of nuclear fuel and reactor safety parameters. It is a significant component of the Instrumentation and Control System. In all of the reactor's operating modes, including abnormal ones, the system maintains track of the power density and temperature fields as well as the process parameters. 

ICIS is a self-contained, functionally complete system with redundant hardware and primary software. Because of this, even in the event of a single failure, the system continues to work continuously for the duration of the time required to correct the fault. For primary circuit and secondary circuit leak detection from coolant pipelines and main steam pipes, respectively, humidity leak monitoring systems (HLMS) and acoustic leak monitoring systems (ALMS) are used. 

According to IAEA guidelines, NPP power units must use at least three different automated systems to execute at least three different procedures to look for possible leaks. Therefore, safe operation is guaranteed using a variety of techniques, including acoustic noise (ALMS-2), steam distribution rate (HLMS-2), air humidity in containment facilities, and the most likely places where a leakage might occur (HLMS-2P).