Four Years Of Experience On State Of Health (SoH) Remote Data Transmission Of Surveillance Systems Applied To Nuclear Power Reactors In Brazil And Argentina

Application of surveillance and containment systems is a relevant safeguards activity to maintain the continuity of knowledge on nuclear material in nuclear power reactors. The current surveillance technology deployed at these facilities is called Next Generation Surveillance System (NGSS). The NGSS system includes a Digital Camara Interface (DCI) module to gather images from up to 32 cameras for inspector evaluation. As part of the surveillance system equipment for counting spent fuel assemblies discharged from the core to the spent fuel pond are also used at on-load nuclear reactors, e.g., the VXI integrated fuel monitor (VIFM). The NGSS cameras, its digital camera Interface modules and the VIFM are capable of remotely reporting variables to indicate whether the devices are working properly. The system is therefore called State of Health (SoH) of the equipment. The purpose of the SoH system is to daily report the equipment operational status. The reported data is reviewed and evaluated by ABCC and IAEA independently and in case of failure the agencies can take expedite remediation actions. Currently, ABACC and the IAEA have arrangements with Argentina and Brazil for remote SoH data transmission from two selected nuclear power plants (NPP): Angra 2 in Brazil and Atucha 2 in Argentina. In each NPP there are three cameras and the DCI connected to the SoH server. In addition, as Atucha 2 is an on-load reactor, the VIFM has also been connected for SoH data transmission. The SoH data is securely transmitted from the selected facilities in Argentina and Brazil to ABACC and to IAEA HQs using virtual private network (VPN) tunnels. ABACC developed and uses a SoH data review graphical software for ease visualization and analysis of the operational status of the nuclear safeguard systems. This paper describes the analysis of the remoted SoH data received at ABACC HQ, the developed software to carry out this analysis and the experience gained in nearly four years of SoH data evaluation.