NRC's plan to modernize digital I&C regulatory infrastructure

摘要

Digital technology has advantages over analog systems, including automated monitoring and alerts for standby safety functions and predictive algorithms to maintain critical safety systems. In addition, digital technology generally has higher reliability and can be designed to reduce single point vulnerabilities. For these reasons, many nuclear plants have applied digital technology to safety and non-safety-related applications. Nonetheless, digital instrumentation and control systems also present potential new vulnerabilities that need to be assessed, including potential failures due to the increased complexity of digital systems, the introduction of unique failure modes due to software, and the limited operating history of digital systems in nuclear safety-related applications compared to analog systems.