Advanced alarm management in the AWARE system

Westinghouse is currently constructing and installing the AWARE alarm system for a Swiss utility. This system, which utilizes a novel conceptual approach to achieve the level of effectiveness required for a nuclear power plant, alarm management system, will be an integral part of an extensive control room upgrade to the utility. AWARE is designed to eliminate the alarm ´avalanche´ problem associated with major off-normal events, but will maintain the sensitivity necessary to support minor disturbances. This is accomplished by the use of expert-specified alarm logic, alarm prioritization according to the plant´s functional organization, and computer presentation of the alarm messages. The AWARE system employs a redundant, UNIX-workstation-based, distributed computer architecture to achieve high reliability and state-of-the-art performance. The alarm logic algorithms, prioritization rules, and alarm messages are represented as data within the system and are easily maintained by the plant´s operating staff.<>