Year
2018
Abstract
This paper describes the progress achieved in the implementation of the State of Heath (SoH) remote transmission of surveillance systems installed in two nuclear power plants within ABACC Regional System. The selected facilities were Angra 2 - a 1350 MWe PWR - in Brazil and Atucha 2 - a 745 MWe on load PHWR - in Argentina. The right functioning of the containment and surveillance systems implemented in reactor facilities is necessary to maintain the knowledge on the verified nuclear material inventories. The SoH system has been designed to provide daily information regarding functional status of the main components of such systems. The purpose of implementing SoH in ABACC Regional System is to give ABACC and IAEA the opportunity to have an early detection of failure or malfunctioning of components. This information allows both agencies to coordinate their activities aimed at taking corrective actions in order to minimize the risk of eventual costly reverification activities. A common procedure has been designed and agreed between ABACC, the IAEA and the State Authorities of both countries. The owners of the facilities have formally agreed with the transmission of SoH data that not includes any type of internal images. A special system has been included in the procedure taking under consideration the surveillance systems are shared between both control organizations. In the on load reactor Atucha 2, technical information related with the equipment used for counting spent fuel assemblies discharged from the core to the spent fuel pond (VIFM) has been also considered for SoH data transmission. The routine transmission of SoH data started on November 2017.