The communication system of nuclear power plants in China is not a safety class system, but it plays an important role in the safe operation of nuclear power plants. Under emergency state, the communication system is a prerequisite for accident management. In order to ensure communication in-site and off-site, diverse communication sub-systems are designed throughout the nuclear power plant, including various communication means for voice, data and images. For a generation Ⅱ pressurized water reactor(PWR) nuclear power plant(NPP) in China, there are 14 sub-systems, including normal telephone system, safety telephone system, grid telephone system, direct lines, public address system, intercom system, alarm system, sound-powered telephone, radiophone system, mobile telephone information platform paging system, communications monitor system, digital recording system, clock system and syntheses wire system.

Although NPPs have designed diverse communication sub-systems, there is not any clear classification of the sub-systems, which is not enough for the reliability of communication sub-systems under accident conditions. Therefore, it can hardly ensure effective communications between different emergency response organizations and this will influence the mitigation of the accident. In order to identify the importance of different communication sub-systems, to optimize the design of communication system, and to improve the reliability and efficiency of nuclear power plant communication system, it’s necessary to analyze the function and operation of each sub-system, as well as to develop the classification method of nuclear power plant communication system.

Taking a generation Ⅱ PWR NPP in China as a research object, this paper presents a classification method of communication as the basis for further design modification of communication system. This paper mainly concerns the availability of onsite and offsite communication under emergency conditions with due consideration of system-and-equipment economy, which determines 7 assessment factors and develops a set of scoring methods for communication system classification. On this basis, this paper completes the classification of the communication system of a generation Ⅱ PWR NPP, which provides a reference for communication system classification for nuclear power plants.


Classification Analysis of Communication System of Nuclear Power Plant

Division / Sponsors: 
Power Division & Nuclear Engineering Division (NED)

Power Conference
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/POWER/POWER2020/volume/83747

International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICONE/ICONE2020/volume/83761

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