General Provisions - Nuclear Power Plant Instrumentation and Control Systems for Safety and Security - page 2

related to this trend, in particular: Rosenberg &
Bobryakov, 2003; IAEA, 2007,a developed by
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA);
IEC, 2007, developed by the International Elec-
trotechnical Commission (IEC). In the topic
IAEA, 2011, prepared by an international group
of specialists under the auspices of the IAEA,
general concepts applicable to NPP I&C systems,
and introductory description of I&C systems and
their life cycle are considered. Moreover, in many
international and national regulatory documents
related to individual tasks of design and/or op-
eration of NPP I&C systems definitions of used
terms are provided.
However, the terminology regulated in Ukrai-
nian regulations, rules and standards can be un-
known to readers of the topic, so in the first chapter
some terms, used in other chapters, are defined
and supplied with annotations. In particular, the
concept of “Instrumentation and control systems”
that is traditionally used in Ukraine in narrower
sense than in international standards and English
literature, where this term, depending on context,
can cover not only individual I&C systems, but
also the overall set of such systems, controlling
a certain object or, by contrast, only central part
of individual I&C system and also equipment
(hardware, integrated with software), developed
and/or produced and supplied for implementation
of the central part of individual I&C systems, is
considered. For such equipment the authors use
the term “Software-hardware complex” (SHC)
that does not have an analogue in international
standards, but is widely used by Ukrainian experts,
and it is embodied in Ukrainian national standards
(and some other countries) and in literature, for
example, in Yastrebenetsky, 2004.
This fact necessitates detailed consideration
of the concept, denoted by the term SHC, pe-
culiarities that distinguish it from the individual
I&C system, and differences between SHCs as
industrial production products, in the first chapter.

Software of modern distributed overall I&C
systems significantly differs from the one that was
used in centralized systems of previous generation:
it is concentrated mainly in SHC and integrated
with hardware directly at the plant that design,
manufactures and and/or supplies Software-
hardware complex, but not at the facility (NPP),
where the system will be operated. These and other
differences important for understanding of further
topic content are also considered in the chapter.
From the beginning of creation and use of
software-hardware complexes in Ukraine intended
for individual I&C systems, a principle of as-
sembling (aggregation) such SHC from a limited
set of parts (hardware, software), composing an
aggregate equipment family, oriented at solving
I&C tasks typical for a sufficiently wide range
of objects in one or several branches of industry,
was applied. As far as all I&C systems, described
in the topic, are designed on the basis of such
equipment families (platforms), general informa-
tion about these platforms and also those similar
equipment families, developed in other countries,
are provided
In the chapter at the beginning of the topic,
the authors decided to describe their vision of
development trends of I&C systems, which are
implemented in practice in the modernization of
current and designing of new systems for Ukrai-
nian NPPs.
Recent years are characterized by rapid
development of electronics, digital computer
technologies, information technologies, which
are more widely used in the process of design of
I&C systems. Advantages of these systems are
the following:

• Increase of operating speed and storage

capacity allowing on-line complex calcu-
lations in real time, required for implemen-
tation of control and security algorithms.