Systems and methods of monitoring control rods of a nuclear power plant
AssigneeAnalysis and Measurement Services Corporation
InventorsGregory W. Morton, Hashem M. Hashemian, Samuel Caylor, Jacob McCulley
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A diagnostic system to monitor digital rod position indication (DRPI) signals of a DRPI system of a nuclear power plant, including a digital diagnostic unit connected between a DRPI display cabinet and a DRPI data cabinet of the DRPI system to monitor digital rod position signals of the DRPI data cabinet. The digital rod position signals include digital rod address signals and digital rod position data signals such that the digital diagnostic unit detects signal level variation and signal timing variation of the digital rod address signals and the digital rod position data signals to determine rod position errors of the DRPI system.
Claims8
A diagnostic system for a digital rod position indication (DRPI) system of a nuclear power plant to monitor in real time DRPI signals generated by a plurality of detector coils of the DRPI system while the nuclear power plant is operating, the diagnostic system comprising:
- a digital diagnostic unit connected in parallel between a DRPI display cabinet and redundant pair of DRPI A and DRPI B data cabinets, the digital diagnostic unit having:
- inputs configured to receive DRPI signals communicated between the DRPI display cabinet and the DRPI A and B data cabinets;
- a coil diagnostic unit configured to receive voltage signals from each one of the detector coils;
- a plurality of data acquisition modules configured to receive digital rod position signals for each detector coil from the DRPI A and B data cabinets;
- at least one address input/output module configured to drive rod addresses to the DRPI A and B data cabinets;
- and
- a gate array module configured to acquire the DRPI signals from the data acquisition and address input/output modules, the gate array module having an interface connected with a controller configured to monitor the digital rod position signals from the DRPI A and B data cabinets for each coil and identify mismatches between a DRPI A rod position of the DRPI A data cabinet and a DRPI B rod position of the DRPI B data cabinet for each coil while the nuclear power plant is operating.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.