HARMONICS
Harmonised Assessment of Reliability of MOdern Nuclear I&C Software
| Coordinatore | Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy
Organization address
address: Vuorimiehentie 3 contact info |
| Nazionalità Coordinatore | Finland [FI] |
| Totale costo | 1˙577˙237 € |
| EC contributo | 999˙458 € |
| Programma | FP7-EURATOM-FISSION
EURATOM: Nuclear fission and radiation protection |
| Code Call | FP7-Fission-2010 |
| Funding Scheme | CP-FP |
| Anno di inizio | 2011 |
| Periodo (anno-mese-giorno) | 2011-01-12 - 2015-01-11 |
Partecipanti
| # | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy
Organization address
address: Vuorimiehentie 3 contact info |
FI (Espoo) | coordinator | 0.00 |
| 2 |
ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE S.A.
Organization address
address: avenue de Wagram 22-30 contact info |
FR (PARIS) | participant | 297˙237.00 |
| 3 |
TEKNOLOGIAN TUTKIMUSKESKUS VTT
Organization address
address: TEKNIIKANTIE 4 A contact info |
FI (ESPOO) | participant | 292˙887.00 |
| 4 |
ADELARD LLP
Organization address
address: STATION ROAD STOURSIDE PLACE contact info |
UK (ASHFORD KENT) | participant | 217˙015.00 |
| 5 |
Institut fur Sicherheitstechnologie (ISTec) GmbH
Organization address
address: Boltzmannstrasse 14 contact info |
DE (Garching) | participant | 151˙885.00 |
| 6 |
STRALSAKERHETSMYNDIGHETEN
Organization address
address: SOLNA STRANDVAG 96 contact info |
SE (STOCKHOLM) | participant | 40˙434.00 |
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Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)
The ongoing nuclear renaissance means the construction of new nuclear power units, and the upgrade for lifetime extension of existing units. The reliability and safety of the computer-based systems that implement safety functions is a critical issue, in particular due to the fact that software can usually not be proven to be completely defect-free. The differences in current safety justification principles and methods in the EU and China hinder the emergence of widely accepted best practices. They also prevent cost sharing and unnecessarily increase licensing uncertainties.
The objective of the HARMONICS project is to ensure that the nuclear industry has well founded and up-to-date methods and data for assessing software of safety systems of Gen-II and Gen-III nuclear power plants. HARMONICS will propose a more systematic and consistent, yet realistic and practical, approach for the software assessment. The approach will address the complete software and system lifecycle, from requirements specification to architectural and detailed design, development, testing, use and maintenance. HARMONICS will be the result of a close co-operation between the EU and China. In addition to the core project team, a larger advisory and end user group will be constituted with other interested stakeholders to review and give feedback on the project work. The project should foster an international consensus based on a sound scientific and technical approach, and provide a good basis for harmonisation.
The main steps of the project are - Clarification of needs, practices and experiences in the EU and China. - Development of common approaches to the assessment and justification of the reliability of safety-critical software taking advantage from experience from the recent licensing processes and research projects. - Test of the approaches in case studies. - Assessment of results from the case studies. - Dissemination of results via end users workshops.
Introduzione (Teaser)
Joint efforts between China and the EU have helped to develop new methods of verifying safety-critical software for use in the nuclear power industry.
Descrizione progetto (Article)
Nuclear energy represents an important part of the energy mix in Europe, and maintaining the strictest safety standards is paramount for the sector's sustainability. In this context, instrumentation and control (I&C) systems represent the central nervous system of a nuclear power plant, monitoring all aspects of its operation and responding with the required adjustments.
The EU-funded project 'Harmonised assessment of reliability of modern nuclear I&C software' (http://harmonics.vtt.fi (HARMONICS)) supported the nuclear industry in exploiting and evaluating software of high-tech safety systems. Keeping in mind the global nature of nuclear energy, the project aimed to propose practical methods to verify software through tight collaboration between China and five EU countries.
To achieve its aims, the project team designed new software verification tools and methods. It began by outlining the needs, practices and experiences in China and the EU, developing common approaches to assessing reliability and justifying safety-critical software. This involved analysing end-user needs and conducting case studies to validate relevant software.
In the process of developing software verification methods and tools, the project team assessed justification frameworks for software-based systems and outlined approaches to quantify software failure rates. It deployed formal methods, statistical testing and complexity analysis to assess software-based systems, as well as an analytical approach to quantify software reliability. These approaches and methods were tested in case studies and the results assessed to ensure their validity.
The results from HARMONICS are expected to enhance plant efficiency and upgrade safety through new digital I&C technologies and methods. Licensing of digital I&C systems will become more transparent and cost efficient, while harmonisation in nuclear I&C among EU countries and beyond will facilitate sharing of best practices. Lastly, the project's results are also expected to boost competitiveness in digital I&C technologies and solutions on the market.