Simulation-Based Reactor Control Design Methodology for CANDU 9

Abstract

The next generation of CANDU nuclear power plant being designed by AECL is the 900 MWe CANDU 9 station. This design is based upon the Darlington CANDU nuclear power plant located in Ontario which is among the world leading nuclear power stations for highest capacity factor with the lowest operation, maintenance and administration costs in North America. Canadian-designed CANDU pressurized heavy water nuclear reactors have traditionally been world leaders in electrical power generation capacity performance. This paper introduces the CANDU 9 design initiative to use plant simulation during the design stage of the plant distributed control system (DCS), plant display system (PDS) and the control centre panels. This paper also introduces some details of the CANDU 9 DCS reactor regulating system (RRS) control application, a typical DCS partition configuration, and the interfacing of some of the software design processes that are being followed from conceptual design to final integrated design validation. A description is given of the reactor model developed specifically for use in the simulator. The CANDU 9 reactor model is a synthesis of 14 micro point-kinetic reactor models to facilitate 14 liquid zone controllers for bulk power error control, as well as zone flux tilt control.