Reactor Operator Companion for CANDU Heat Transport Systems

Abstract

The use of an "Operator Companion", an expert system which can monitor and assess the current status of a power plant, has been proposed by AECL to assist in the operation of a CANDU reactor. A number of satellite expert systems, each monitoring a specific system of a power plant, are to be interfaced with the operator companion or main expert system. As a step in the development of a complete operator companion system, work has begun on the development of a satellite system for the heat transport system of a CANDU nuclear reactor. This will consist of four parts: (1) a heat transport system simulator, (2) a trend analyzer, (3) an expert system, and (4) a data acquisition system. Work is progressing on the simulator portion of the satellite expert system. It will encompass steady state equations for calibrations and fingerprinting purposes as well as transient calculations to enhance trend analysis.