BS EN IEC 60709:2019 - Nuclear Power Plants Safety Standard

Ensure the utmost safety and reliability in nuclear power plant operations with the BS EN IEC 60709:2019 standard. This comprehensive document is an essential resource for professionals in the nuclear energy sector, providing critical guidelines on the separation of instrumentation, control, and electrical systems that are vital to safety.

Key Features of the Standard

• Standard Number: BS EN IEC 60709:2019
• Pages: 52
• Release Date: July 15, 2019
• ISBN: 978 0 580 97761 9
• Status: Standard

Overview

The BS EN IEC 60709:2019 standard is a pivotal document that addresses the separation of systems within nuclear power plants. It is designed to ensure that the instrumentation, control, and electrical systems, which are crucial for the safety of nuclear facilities, are effectively separated to prevent any potential failures or hazards.

Importance of Separation in Nuclear Power Plants

In the context of nuclear power plants, the separation of systems is a fundamental safety principle. This standard provides detailed guidelines to ensure that the systems responsible for monitoring and controlling nuclear reactions are isolated from other systems. This separation is crucial to prevent cascading failures and to maintain the integrity of safety-critical operations.

Comprehensive Guidance

With 52 pages of in-depth information, the BS EN IEC 60709:2019 standard offers comprehensive guidance on the design and implementation of separation measures. It covers various aspects, including physical separation, electrical isolation, and functional independence, ensuring that all potential risks are mitigated effectively.

Who Should Use This Standard?

This standard is indispensable for engineers, safety officers, and regulatory bodies involved in the design, operation, and oversight of nuclear power plants. It provides the necessary framework to ensure that all safety-related systems are adequately separated, thereby enhancing the overall safety and reliability of nuclear facilities.

Benefits of Implementing BS EN IEC 60709:2019

• Enhanced Safety: By adhering to the separation guidelines, nuclear power plants can significantly reduce the risk of accidents and ensure the safety of personnel and the environment.
• Regulatory Compliance: This standard helps facilities meet international safety regulations, ensuring compliance with industry best practices.
• Operational Reliability: Proper separation of systems enhances the reliability of operations, minimizing downtime and maintenance costs.

Conclusion

The BS EN IEC 60709:2019 standard is a critical resource for ensuring the safety and reliability of nuclear power plants. By providing detailed guidelines on the separation of safety-critical systems, it helps facilities maintain high safety standards and comply with international regulations. Whether you are involved in the design, operation, or regulation of nuclear facilities, this standard is an invaluable tool for enhancing safety and operational efficiency.

BS EN IEC 60709:2019

This standard BS EN IEC 60709:2019 Nuclear power plants. Instrumentation, control and electrical systems important to safety. Separation is classified in these ICS categories:

• 33.120.10 Coaxial cables. Waveguides
• 27.120.20 Nuclear power plants. Safety

1.1 General

This document is applicable to nuclear power plant instrumentation and control (I&C) and electrical systems and equipment, whose functions are required to be independent due to their contribution to:

• a redundant or diverse safety group;

• different defence in depth levels;

• different safety classes and also with non-classified (NC) systems.

It is also applicable to temporary installations which are part of those I&C and electrical systems important to safety (for example, auxiliary equipment for commissioning tests and experiments or mobile power supply systems). Clause 7 is intended particularly for electrical isolation, Clause 8 is intended particularly for the cabling and the arrangement of equipment of I&C and electrical systems important to safety.

This document applies to I&C and electrical systems of new nuclear power plants and to I&C and electrical upgrading or back-fitting of existing plants. For existing plants see 1.2 and 5.4.

Where independence is required by general safety standards such as IAEA safety guides, IEC 61513 (for I&C), IEC 63046 (for electrical systems) and other project constraints, one aspect of achieving this independence is physical separation and electrical isolation between the systems and their equipment that perform safety functions. This document defines the assessments needed and the technical requirements to be met for I&C and electrical systems, equipment or cables for which separation is required. Those means are to achieve adequate physical separation and electrical isolation between redundant sections of a system and between a higher and lower class systems. This separation is needed to prevent or minimise the impact on safety that could result from faults and failures which could be propagated or affect several sections of a system or several systems.

The requirements for functions, and their associated systems and equipment, to be independent are normally defined in detail in the project documentation; the method of determining and defining these requirements is not the subject of this document.

Following IAEA SSR-2/1 Requirement 21, separation means by physical separation, electrical isolation, functional independence and independence of communication are considered. In this document physical separation and electrical isolation are treated. Functional independence and independence of communication are not considered in this document. More details referring to functional independence, independence from control systems and independence of communication are given in Annex D.

1.2 Application: new and pre-existing plants

This document applies to the I&C and electrical of new nuclear power plants as well as to up-grading or back-fitting of existing plants.

For existing plants, only a subset of requirements is applicable and this subset is normally specified and argued at the beginning of any project.