Research on Improved Seismic Instrumentation System for Nuclear Power Plants

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 14; no. 14; p. 4262
• Main Authors: Li, Liang, Du, Xiuli, Pan, Rong, Zhu, Xiuyun, Luan, Haiyan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.07.2021
• Subjects: Acceleration; Accelerometers; Construction; Earthquakes; False alarms; Inspection; Instrumentation; Instruments; Monitoring; multi-parameters; Nuclear accidents & safety; Nuclear power plants; Nuclear reactors; Nuclear safety; peak ground acceleration; Safety regulations; Seismic activity; Seismic engineering; seismic instrumentation system; Seismic response; Shutdowns; Fujian China; China; Japan
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en14144262

According to the requirements of nuclear safety regulations, nuclear power plants must be equipped with seismic instrumentation systems, which are mainly used for monitoring alarm and automatic shutdown alarm during an earthquake. Both the second and third generation NPPs adopt Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA). However, among the seismic acceleration characteristics, isolated and prominent single high frequency acceleration peaks have no decisive influence on the seismic response. Especially when the earthquake monitoring alarm is at 1 out of 7, it is likely to cause a false alarm or false shutdown. In addition, it usually takes one month or more for the NPPs to restart after the shutdown. In this paper, an improved seismic instrumentation system based on the existing system is proposed. For high intensity areas, three components resultant acceleration is used to judge the 2 out of 4 logic of the automatic seismic trip system(ASTS). For low intensity areas, the seismic failure level is evaluated quickly by using three components resultant acceleration, seismic instrument intensity, cumulative absolute velocity, floor response spectrum and other multi-parameters, avoiding unnecessary and long-term shutdown inspection.