Reliability Prediction of an Ethernet Bus Interface Controller in a Nuclear Power Plant Simulator

Obsolescence presents great challenge to Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) and plant simulators around the world. Old designs will have to be modified or replaced by new designs, in order to simplify maintenance, increase availability and meet ever-increasing operational and training requirements. Control system upgrade and Distributed Control System (DCS) design for both old plants and new builds have become the center of interest. This paper describes a new Ethernet Bus Interface Controller (eBIC) used in the Input/Output (I/O) system of a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) simulator in Canada. The reliability of the eBIC is evaluated, and compared with the reliability of the existing Bus Interface Controller (BIC). It is shown that the predicted failure rate of the new eBIC is five times lower than that of the existing system. This raises the level of confidence in the new design. The reasons for this improvement are also discussed.