Instrumentation and Control Systems of Nuclear Power Plants

The instrumentation and control (I&C) systems in a nuclear power plant (NPP), along with their enabling features, serve as the “central nervous system” of a NPP. These systems ensure the safe, reliable, and economic operation of the power plant. The I&C architecture includes plant control, protection, and monitoring systems that provide information to various actuators and devices to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the plant, and to the operation and maintenance (O&M) personnel for making timely decisions. The information about plant parameters and plant status are communicated continuously to various modules in real time so that appropriate actions may be taken by the plant sub-systems. This chapter focuses on the instrumentation and control systems used currently in light water reactor plants (PWRs and BWRs).