The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held at its headquarters in Vienna between August 30 and September 2, 2022 a technical meeting called: “IAEA Technical meeting on Instrumentation and Control and Other Advanced Digital Technologies for the Support of Plant Performance Optimization”.
52 participants attended the meeting and 34 of them did it in person, including Javier González Pindado, from Tecnatom, representing Spain as an expert on the subject.
The main purpose of the meeting was to review the draft of a document (“technical report”) with the same title as the meeting. In this document the concept of “performance” is extended to include the assessment of the performance of a nuclear power plant in all its aspects, not only in the thermodynamic performance.
During the meeting, comments and changes proposed to the document by some of the participants that had been sent previously were discussed.
The structure of the meeting was 2 days of presentations, 1 day for review of the document, and 1 final day for conclusions, with active participation of Javier Gonzalez Pindado during all days.
Tecnatom contributes with its experience to the IAEA documents
Tecnatom usually participates in the elaboration of IAEA documents, contributing with our expertise in the development and use of technologies such as:
– Use of simulators for design and optimization of operation.
– Instrumentation and control, fault tolerance systems and the first uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for automatic operation.
– Computerized operating procedures (TecOS PROCEED) for both plant and field operations, such as inspection and maintenance.
– Performance and peak power monitoring, classical systems and systems using Machine Learning (ML) (TecOS SOLCEP)
– Diagnostics, systems using balance simulators, condition monitoring, and application of AI to anomaly detection (ACM)
– Valves: online condition monitoring and anomaly detection using ML
– Use of VR/AR (Virtual and Augmented Reality) for HFE (Human Factors Engineering) purposes in plant, control room and interfaces. For that, it will be considered the integration of technologies and capabilities from the gaming industry
– Flexible operation: control changes to automate and optimize response to reactivity transients (Xenon…). Use of AI and increased monitoring of the secondary
In the technical meeting mentioned above, some proposals from Javier Gonzalez Pindado were accepted. Such as references and photos to inspection robots and drones, a section with the matter of BbM (Benefit Based Maintenance) and for individualized Assisted Diagnosis for each main equipment.
In the upcoming months, the final version of the “technical report” will be issued in which we will continue to have the active participation of our experts.
