Development, Application and Licensing of FPGA Based Safety Systems

Abstract

Westinghouse has developed the Advanced Logic System® (ALS®) platform. The ALS platform was recently approved by the US NRC. In addition, ALS was successfully installed and declared operational as a Thermocouple/Core Cooling Monitor upgrade at the Wolf Creek Generating Station. The ALS has also been installed at the AP1000 Sanmen and Haiyang unit sites as the Diverse Actuation System. The ALS platform is based on FPGA technology. FPGA safety system designs are simpler than comparable CPU based system designs in that they do not require an Operating System or instruction set. The ALS platform provides inherent diversity in redundant cores and diverse core designs. In addition, the ALS provides extensive self testing and diagnostics which allows for extension of plant surveillance intervals.