Digital instrumentation and control in nuclear safety

Digital instrumentation and control equipment (DI&C) transmits information in ones and zeros. This has a number of advantages such as increased accuracy, speed, and quantity of transmitted data and reduced operational and maintenance costs.  It may also introduce new failure modes and cyber security concerns and is therefore an important topic for regulators.  

NEA work on this topic

The Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) established the Working Group on Digital Instrumentation and Control (WGDIC) in 2017. All CNRA members and the IAEA are invited to participate in this working group's activities. The main objective of the WGDIC is to promote harmonisation and improvements in nuclear safety through the development of regulatory guidance to address DI&C topics and technical issues of concern to its member countries, for both operating and new reactors. This regulatory guidance is not intended to replace the guidance already available from international standards organisations; instead, the collective scientific and technical knowledge and experience of the WGDIC members is brought together to develop Consensus Positions (CPs) representing the common understanding and harmonisation of regulatory practices.