• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.723-730
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• 2019

Acquiring instrumentation signals generated from nuclear power plants (NPPs) is essential to maintain nuclear reactor integrity or to mitigate an abnormal state under normal operating conditions or severe accident circumstances. However, various safety-critical instrumentation signals from NPPs cannot be accurately measured on account of instrument degradation or failure under severe accident circumstances. Reactor vessel (RV) water level, which is an accident monitoring variable directly related to reactor cooling and prevention of core exposure, was predicted by applying a few signals to deep neural networks (DNNs) during severe accidents in NPPs. Signal data were obtained by simulating the postulated loss-of-coolant accidents at hot- and cold-legs, and steam generator tube rupture using modular accident analysis program code as actual NPP accidents rarely happen. To optimize the DNN model for RV water level prediction, a genetic algorithm was used to select the numbers of hidden layers and nodes. The proposed DNN model had a small root mean square error for RV water level prediction, and performed better than the cascaded fuzzy neural network model of the previous study. Consequently, the DNN model is considered to perform well enough to provide supporting information on the RV water level to operators.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.10
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• pp.2262-2273
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• 2020

Digital twin technology can provide significant value for the prognostics and health management (PHM) of critical plant components by improving insight into system design and operating conditions. Digital twinning of systems can be utilized for anomaly detection, diagnosis and the estimation of the system's remaining useful life in order to optimize operations and maintenance processes in a nuclear plant. In this regard, a conceptual framework for the application of digital twin technology for the prognosis of Control Element Drive Mechanism (CEDM), and a data-driven approach to anomaly detection using coil current profile are presented in this study. Health management of plant components can capitalize on the data and signals that are already recorded as part of the monitored parameters of the plant's instrumentation and control systems. This work is focused on the development of machine learning algorithm and workflow for the analysis of the CEDM using the recorded coil current data. The workflow involves features extraction from the coil-current profile and consequently performing both clustering and classification algorithms. This approach provides an opportunity for health monitoring in support of condition-based predictive maintenance optimization and in the development of the CEDM digital twin model for improved plant safety and availability.