Sofia Guerra presents at NPIC&HMIT 2021
Adelard’s partner Dr Sofia Guerra attended the American Nuclear Society's 12th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2021) conference held on 14-17 June and presented Adelard’s research papers discussing the use of COTS* devices in safety-critical sectors and various justification approaches employed by industries.
“The Role of Certification in the Safety Demonstration of COTS EDDs” paper, written with Adelard’s Senior Consultant Luke Hinde, discusses an increase in the use of embedded digital COTS devices in Nuclear Power Plants and the required justification for their deployment in nuclear applications. The use of process-based justification, in particular, certification as the main component of the safety justification, is commonly employed by the nuclear industry. However, such approach possesses some weaknesses and may be challenged as not providing sufficient assurance of the absence of device’s faults. Read the paper to learn more.
Another paper presented at the conference, “Overview of Approaches to the Use and Licensing of COTS Digital Devices in Safety Critical Industries”, co-autored by Adelard’s Senior Consultant Gareth Fletcher, overviews the use of COTS components in several safety applications, both within the nuclear sector and in other safety-critical sectors. It describes work funded by Energiforsk with the aim to investigate whether the use of COTS products may be feasible in the Nordic Nuclear Power Plants. The use of COTS components offers both some commercial advantages but also some challenges with regard to their safety demonstration and justification. Read the paper to learn how those concerns are approached and mitigated by different safety-critical sectors across various countries.
*Commercial off-the-shelf