Conceptual design of autonomous emergency operation system for nuclear power plants and its prototype

Abstract

This paper presents a conceptual design for a plant-wide autonomous operation system that uses artificial intelligence techniques. The autonomous operation system has the power and ability to perform the control functions needed for the emergency operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP) with reduced operator intervention. This paper discusses the emergency operation and level of automation in an NPP and presents the design requirements for an autonomous emergency operation system (A-EOS). Then, an architecture that consists of several modules is proposed, with descriptions of the functions. Finally, this paper introduces a prototype of the suggested autonomous system that integrates the authors' previous works. (C) 2019 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC.