Distributed Control System Application to CANDU Plants Recent Activities for Adaptation of DCS Platform to IEC Standards

Abstract

This paper describes the current activity status for IEC qualification of the Hitachi DCS platform with special focus on products that would be applicable to the new Enhanced CANDU 6 (EC6), Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR) and existing CANDU reactors. Hitachi’s product qualification goal is to be compliant with the IEC standards (61508, 61000), so as to allow it to offer suitable technology for use in projects that are adopting IEC 61226 and IEC 61513 for categorization of safety functions. Basic applicability of the existing Hitachi product for the ACR DCS platform has already been evaluated by AECL [1]. This paper discusses current developments of the enhanced version to address gaps identified in the existing product with regards to compliance to IEC 61508.