Developments in a nuclear power station programmed protection system

An examination is made of the development of nuclear power station programmed protection systems and the problems and challenges set by the safety requirements of these systems. Between 1980 and 1984 the first nuclear power stations programmed protection system (SPIN) for the French 1300-MW power stations were developed. Since it was necessary to deal with the problem of software safety, a safety-oriented software was adopted and applied to these systems. These systems have been in service at more than 20 sites for six years. Since 1986, a new generation of the SPIN system for 1450-MW plants, which corresponds to a significant expansion of the software, has been developed