ADVANCED ALARM SYSTEMS: A SURVEY OF INDUSTRY GUIDELINES

摘要

The main control room (MCR) in a conventional nuclear power plant provides the operator with alarm information via hundreds of hardware alarm tiles. The digital instrumentation and control systems used in next generation nuclear plants provide thousands of alarmable data points. Advanced alarm systems are needed to help the operator cope with the order of magnitude increase in alarm information. The Engineering Equipment and Materials Users Association (EEMUA) published a landmark document, EEMUA-191-1999, on advanced alarm systems in the wake of several industrial incidents. Other organizations have since published advanced alarm system guidelines including the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/International Society of Automation (ISA), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The EEMUA released a second edition of EEMUA-191 (Reference 1) in 2007. This paper summarizes advanced alarm system guidance on alarm generation, alarm processing, and alarm presentation from the following sources: 1. EEMUA Publication 191, Edition 2, Alarm Systems: A Guide to Design, Management and Procurement, Engineering Equipment and Materials Users Association, 2007 (Reference 1) 2. EPRI Technical Report 1010076, Advanced Control Room Alarm System: Requirements and Implementation Guidance, Electric Power Research Institute, December 2005 (Reference 2) 3. ANSI/ISA-18.2-2009, Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries, International Society of Automation, June 2009 (Reference 3) 4. IEC International Standard 62241 First Edition, Nuclear Power Plants - Main Control Room - Alarm Functions and Presentation, International Electrotechnical Commission, November 2004 (Reference 4) 5. NUREG-0700, Rev. 2, Human-System Interface Design Review Guidelines, Section 4, 'Alarm System,' U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, May 2002 (Reference 5) The global nuclear renaissance provides a unique opportunity to apply the guidelines in the referenced documents to alarm systems in modern control rooms. The industry guidance has been instrumental in the development of the feature set of the Westinghouse Alarm Presentation System (APS). This paper also describes the features of the Westinghouse APS as implemented for the AP1000™ nuclear power plant.