A technical system to improve the operational monitoring of the ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporosh'ye (Unit 5)

In order to improve the operational surveillance of a VVER-1000 unit of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporosh'ye a technical monitoring system has been specified and installed during the last three years.
The technical system enables the operator and supervisory body to monitor the core and the unit continuously during normal and off-normal conditions, to assess the safety status of core and unit, and to impose appropriate measures. The system provides an early indication of any operational incident and of emissions of radioactive materials. Based on the system an immediate warning in emergency situations is possible as well as an effective emergency management. For this purpose 49 different safety related operational parameters of the core and unit - e.g.: neutron flux, pressure - primary and secondary circuit, fuel rod outlet water temperature, boron concentration - primary circuit and so on -, 18 radiological parameters of the unit and the plant side and 6 meteorological parameters are automatically monitored and evaluated.
The system was put into operation at the end of 1995. It is now working under test conditions.
The paper presents the technical solution of the system and the evaluation principles. Additionally the paper gives a short overview about the results obtained during the test operation of the system.