USER’S NEEDS FOR ADVANCED ALARM FUNCTIONS

摘要

For a given project, the alarm system’s design is a compromise between functional needs andtechnological possibilities. These systems benefit from the large experience base gained fromuse in fossil plants. Unfortunately, a good alarm system design may be different between afossil plant and a nuclear plant. As a consequence, some mechanisms needed for nuclearplants are not yet available with commercial tools. This paper focuses on some of the featuresfor a definition of a truly effective alarm system from a user standpoint. The goal is to discusssome advanced alarm functions that could be beneficial to have in the future with commercialoff-the-shelf products. After considerations on alarm filtering and alarm prioritization, thepaper discusses some advanced alarm functions that are not often available with an off-theshelfcommercial alarm system in order to guide operators’ required actions, to help theoperator to diagnose faulty conditions and to inform about faults, malfunctions and off-normalcondition in the whole plant. For the first item, corresponding to the main alarm function toguide operators’ action, some of the more detailed key features are described, like thepossibilities for the main alarm presentation mechanism, including to direct the user toanother display, the possibilities and risks of alarm filtering and alarm suppressing, thepossibilities for recording alarm acknowledgement and treatment, the possibilities andwarnings for the sound signals or the possibilities to make space in the main alarm displayonce alarms have been treated.