Consulting Services for Nuclear Power Industry
My team of software engineers is actively involved in the commercial-grade dedication process for safety-related digital equipment. Working with third-party dedicators, we have participated in developing dedication processes that provide reasonable assurance that commercial grade digital systems will perform intended safety functions in the nuclear plant.Safety-related digital equipment is dedicated and the software verified and validated to demonstrate through audits, tests, and inspections that the equipment will perform satisfactorily for service in nuclear safety-related applications.
The goal of the dedication process is for the digital system to be deemed equivalent to an item designed and manufactured under a 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B quality assurance program. This is achieved by identifying the critical characteristics of the digital system and verifying acceptability by inspections, tests, or analyses by the purchaser or third-party dedicator.
Digital upgrades are conducted in accordance with several standards, technical reports, and NRC Regulatory Guides including:
- EPRI NP-5652 Guideline for the Utilization of Commercial Grade Items in Nuclear Safety Related Applications
- ERPI TR-106439 Guideline on Evaluation and Acceptance of Commercial Grade Digital Equipment for Nuclear Safety Applications, dated April 1996
- EPRI Evaluating Commercial Digital Equipment for High Integrity Applications - A Supplement to EPRI Report TR-106439 TR-107339, Dec 1997
- IEEE 7-4.3.2-1993 Standard Criteria for Digital Computers in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Generating Stations
- NRC Reg Guide 1.152 Criteria for Use of Computers in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Plants, Rev. 2, Jan 2006
- NRC Reg Guide 1.168 Verification, Validation, Reviews, and Audits for Digital Computer Software Used in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Plants, Rev. 1, Feb 2004
My team of experienced software engineers typically works together with third party dedicators and can perform all required commercial-grade item digital upgrade activities, including:
- Prepare a Retrospective software verification and validation (V&V) Plan
- Reverse engineer source code to create Software Requirements Specifications (SRS) and software design documents
- Perform code reviews on safety-critical and non-safety-critical code
- Develop Standard Operating Procedures consistent with the dedicators Quality Program
- Develop rigorous test cases for validating safety-critical code
- Participate in Hazard Analysis using FMEA and Fault Tree Analysis
- Create all required project-specific SOPs and required records
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