RPC Radiy - Intelligent safety solutions

RPC Radiy is the leading company in Ukraine that develops and produces I&C systems to provide safe operation at nuclear power plants with VVER-440 and VVER-1000 reactors.

During last year and the first half of 2014, RPC Radiy made important in-roads that will allow it to establish itself as a supplier of safety-related I&C equipment and systems in the Canadian market.
In March and June 2013, RPC Radiy received purchase orders from Candu Energy to design and manufacture an annunciation alarm system and PHT pump-motor-speed measuring devices to be installed in the Embalse nuclear power plant in Argentina.
The Embalse project was identified as a priority initiative and part of a large-scale refurbishment plan to extend the service life of the Candu-6 reactor beyond 2030, under Argentina's long-term energy strategy.
The annunciation alarm system and PHT pump-motor-speed measuring devices were designed and manufactured to completion, and passed all required seismic and environmental tests.
During the period 11-21 March 2014, RPC Radiy and the Canadian corporation Candu Energy conducted factory acceptance tests (FATs) of all the above equipment. All functional tests were successful, and the equipment was delivered and accepted by the client in April 2014.
In August 2013, RPC Radiy received a purchase order from Candu Energy to design and manufacture a prototype and 56 shut-off rod (SOR) indication units for the Pickering NGS near Toronto, Ontario.
After the pickering operator, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) accepted the prototype, and the SOR indicators were designed, manufactured and tested to completion.
In May 2014, Radiy and Candu Energy successfully completed the FATs of the 56 indicators.
The following are the main details associated with all the above equipment.

Annunciation alarm system
RPC Radiy designed and manufactured an annunciation alarm system to replace the obsolete equipment installed in the Embalse nuclear power plant in Argentina, as part of its life-extension project conducted by the Argentine utility NA-SA (Nucleoelectrica) to extend the operating life of their Candu-6 reactor.
The equipment was reverse engineered and customised to meet the client's needs; among them, to fit the equipment in the same space as that allocated to the existing one as much as possible.
Equipment for the above system will be installed in the main control room (MCR) and secondary control area (SCA) of the Embals station to generate alarms associated with the plant's shutdown system one (SDS1), shutdown system two (SDS2) and emergency core cooling (ECC) systems. Radiy's design complies with all the latest human system interface (HSI) requirements applicable to changes to panel-mounted operator instrumentation in the above areas, as specified in applicable design guides issued by the client.
The annunciation alarm system consists of two assemblies:

  • a window box assembly that houses the indicating lights (lamps) for the alarm windows
  • a 19in rack-mounted remote logic-card assembly housing solid state devices, logic cards and power supplies, for the indicating lights described above.

The logic-card assemblies process binary input signals representing the status of critical process and nuclear parameters from different systems in the station, and output binary signals to window-box assemblies. The window-box assemblies provide audio alarms via horns and visual indication of process, and nuclear parameters status via engraved, LED illuminated windows.
Three main components were developed as part of the annunciation alarm system, two associated with the MCR, housed in the same logic-card assembly and using two separate alarm logic controllers (ALC) in the same chassis, and a third one associated with the SCA. The MCR portions of the equipment are galvanically isolated from each other.
Radiy designed and manufactured the above equipment using its standard field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based RadICS platform - the same one currently being assessed for SIL 3 certification under IEC 61508 standard.
The equipment was seismically and environmentally qualified (EQ) by Radiy in compliance with the client's requirements. All required qualification tests were performed at certified laboratories in Ukraine
and Canada.
In addition, Radiy issued to CanduEnergy all applicable documentation covering design, manufacturing, quality assurance and test activities.
FATs, seismic and EQ results showed that the equipment is in full compliance with client functional, performance and safety specifications.

Primary heat transport pump-motor-speed measuring devices
RPC Radiy designed and manufactured PHT (pressurised heat transport) system pump-motor-speed measuring devices, named signal processing units (SPUs), to be installed in the SDS2 in order to improve the trip coverage of the Embalse nuclear power plant in Argentina. The SPU processes pulse signals from a speed sensors and converts them into corresponding analogue signals.
SPUs are composed of two main functional units:
signal acquisition and analogue output components; the logic and self-diagnostics are implemented in FPGAs
a separate power supply and monitor system using a CPLD that provides constant monitoring of the FPGA.
Both functional units include diagnostic capabilities that drive the SPU to the safe state in case a critical failure is detected.
SPUs are designed with an overall accuracy of ±0.25% full scale for input and output ranges of 0-320,000 pulses a minute and 4-20mA output respectively. The 4-20mA output corresponds to a speed measurement range of 0-2,000rpm.
Accuracy over the whole period of operation is achieved by ensuring compliance with Radiy's recommended practices.
The units incorporate a testing facility consisting of an internally generated ramp-down signal simulating an abnormal process condition; for example, loss of pump speed, which, when fed to the comparator, will result in a reactor channel trip when the test signal falls below the trip set point.
Each unit is fed from an external dry contact to facilitate on-line testing of the SPUs. Closure of the dry contact replaces the sensor signal with the built-in test signal inside the SPU and enables the on-line testing.
The SPU was qualified to IEC 61513 Class 1, consistent with category A safety function applications.
In addition to the SPUs, Radiy delivered 24 speed sensors, connectors, installation hardware, all radiation hardened cable required for the installation of the
12 SPUs, and associated spares and documentation covering design, manufacturing, quality assurance and test activities.

SOR indication units
Radiy manufactured, inspected prepared documentation and tested the following:

  • a prototype rod ready indicator chassis
  • 54 PCBS for rod ready indicator chassis
  • a documentation set covering design, manufacturing, quality assurance and testactivities.

FAT and other test results showed that the equipment was in full compliance with client specifications.The equipment is presently being packed to be transported to Canada.

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