• KIPS Transactions on Computer and Communication Systems
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• v.2 no.12
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• pp.561-568
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• 2013

Instrumentation and control system in nuclear power plant performs protecting, controling and monitoring safety operation of Nuclear Power Plant. As cyber attack to the control equipment of instrumentation and control system can cause reactor shutdown and radiation release, it is required to design the instrumentation and control system considering cyber security in accordance with regulatory guides and industrial standards. In this paper, we proposed a design method of uni-directional communication structure which is required in the design of defense-in-depth model according to regulatory guides and industrial standards and we implemented a communication board with the proposed method. This communication board was tested in various test environments and test items and we concluded it can provide uni-directional communication structure required to design of defense-in-depth model against cyber attack by analyzing the results. The proposed method and implemented communication board were applied in the design of SMART (system-integrated modular advanced reactor) I&C (instrumentation and control) systems.

• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.39-48
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• 2022

The application of digital technology to instrumentation and control systems in nuclear power plants has overcome many shortcomings of analog technology, but the threat of cybersecurity has increased. Along with other systems, the reactor protection system also uses digital-based equipment, so responding to cybersecurity threats is essential. We generally determine cybersecurity threats according to the role and function of the system. However, since the instrumentation and control system has various systems linked to each other, it is essential to analyze cybersecurity threats together between the connected systems. In this paper, we analyze the cybersecurity threat of the reactor protection system with the associated facilities. To this end, we quantitatively identified the risk of the reactor protection system by considering safety functions, a communication type, the use of analog or digital-based equipment of the associated systems, and the software vulnerability of the configuration module of the reactor protection system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.637-652
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• 2013

Instrumentation and control systems in nuclear power plants have been digitalized for the purpose of maintenance and precise operation. This digitalization, however, brings out issues related to cyber security. In the most recent past, international standard organizations, regulatory institutes, and research institutes have performed a number of studies addressing these systems cyber security.. In order to provide information helpful to the system designers in their application of cyber security for the systems, this paper presents methods and considerations to define attack vectors in a target system, to review and select the requirements in the Regulatory Guide 5.71, and to integrate the results to identify applicable technical security control requirements. In this study, attack vectors are analyzed through the vulnerability analyses and penetration tests with a simplified safety system, and the elements of critical digital assets acting as attack vectors are identified. Among the security control requirements listed in Appendices B and C to Regulatory Guide 5.71, those that should be implemented into the systems are selected and classified in groups of technical security control requirements using the results of the attack vector analysis. For the attack vector elements of critical digital assets, all the technical security control requirements are evaluated to determine whether they are applicable and effective, and considerations in this evaluation are also discussed. The technical security control requirements in three important categories of access control, monitoring and logging, and encryption are derived and grouped according to the elements of attack vectors as results for the sample safety system.

• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.35-44
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• 2021

With the development of information technology, the cybersecurity threat continues as digital-related technologies are applied to the instrumentation and control system of nuclear power plants. The malfunction of the instrumentation and control system can cause economic damage due to shutdown, and furthermore, it can lead to national disasters such as radioactive emissions, so countering cybersecurity threats is an important issue. In general, the study of cybersecurity in instrumentation and control systems is concentrated on safety systems, and diverse protection systems perform protection and reactor shutdown functions, leading to reactor shutdown or, in the worst case, non-stop situations. To accurately analyze cyber threats in the diverse protection system, its linked facilities should be analyzed together. Risk analysis should be conducted by analyzing the potential impact of inter-facility cyberattacks on related facilities and the impact of cybersecurity on each configuration module of the diverse protection system. In this paper, we analyze the linkage of the diverse protection system and discuss the cybersecurity linkage threat by analyzing the availability of equipment, the cyber threat impact of the linked equipment, and the configuration module's cybersecurity vulnerability.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.734-743
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• 1999

In this paper, a real-time communication method using a PICNET-NP(Plant instrumentation and Control Network for Nuclear Power plant) is proposed with an analysis of the control network requirements of DCS(Distributed Control System) in nuclear power plants. The method satisfies deadline in case of worst data traffics by considering aperiodic and periodic real-time data and others. In addition, the method was used to analyze the data characteristics of the DCS in existing nuclear power plant. The result shows that use of this method meets the response time requirement(100ms).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.653-664
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• 2013

The design of computer-based instrumentation and control (I&C) systems is determined by the allocation of I&C functions to I&C systems and components. Due to the characteristics of computer-based technology, component failures can negatively affect several I&C functions, so that the reliability proof of the I&C systems requires the accomplishment of I&C system design analyses throughout the I&C life-cycle. On one hand, this paper proposes the restructuring of the sequential IEC 61513 I&C life-cycle according to the V-model, so as to adequately integrate the concept of verification and validation. On the other hand, based on a metamodel for the modeling of I&C systems, this paper introduces a method for the modeling and analysis of the effects with respect to the superposition of failure combinations and event sequences on the I&C system design, i.e. the temporal change of physical structure is analyzed. In the first step, the method is concerned with the modeling of the I&C systems. In the second step, the method considers the analysis of temporal change of physical structure, which integrates the concepts of the diversity and defense-in-depth analysis, fault tree analysis, event tree analysis, and failure mode and effects analysis.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.8
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• pp.1589-1599
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• 2017

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are getting more attention in safety-related and safety-critical application development of nuclear power plant instrumentation and control systems. The high logic density and advancements in architectural features make static random access memory (SRAM)-based FPGAs suitable for complex design implementations. Devices deployed in the nuclear environment face radiation particle strike that causes transient and permanent failures. The major reasons for failures are total ionization dose effects, displacement damage dose effects, and single event effects. Different from the case of space applications, soft errors are the major concern in terrestrial applications. In this article, a review of radiation effects on FPGAs is presented, especially soft errors in SRAM-based FPGAs. Single event upset (SEU) shows a high probability of error in the dependable application development in FPGAs. This survey covers the main sources of radiation and its effects on FPGAs, with emphasis on SEUs as well as on the measurement of radiation upset sensitivity and irradiation experimental results at various facilities. This article also presents a comparison between the major SEU mitigation techniques in the configuration memory and user logics of SRAM-based FPGAs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.692-701
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• 2019

Recently, instrumentation and control (I&C) systems in nuclear power plants have undergone digitalization. Owing to the unique characteristics of digital I&C systems, the reliability analysis of digital systems has become an important element of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA). In a reliability analysis of digital systems, fault-tolerant techniques and their effectiveness must be considered. A fault injection experiment was performed on a safety-critical digital I&C system developed for nuclear power plants to evaluate the effectiveness of fault-tolerant techniques implemented in the target system. A software-implemented fault injection in which faults were injected into the memory area was used based on the assumption that all faults in the target system will be reflected in the faults in the memory. To reduce the number of required fault injection experiments, the memory assigned to the target software was analyzed. In addition, to observe the effect of the fault detection coverage of fault-tolerant techniques, a PSA model was developed. The analysis of the experimental result also can be used to identify weak points of fault-tolerant techniques for capability improvement of fault-tolerant techniques

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.7
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• pp.1791-1798
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• 2019

Instrumentation and Control (I&C) systems of nuclear power plants (NPPs) have been continuously digitalized. These systems have a critical role in the operation of nuclear facilities by functioning as the brain of NPPs. In recent years, as cyber security threats to NPP systems have increased, regulatory and policy-related organizations around the world, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC), have emphasized the importance of nuclear cyber security by publishing cyber security guidelines and recommending cyber security requirements for NPP facilities. As described in NRC Regulatory Guide (Reg) 5.71 and KINAC RS015, challenge response authentication should be applied to the critical digital I&C system of NPPs to satisfy the cyber security requirements. There have been no cases in which the most robust response authentication technology like challenge response has been developed and applied to nuclear I&C systems. This paper presents a challenge response authentication mechanism for a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) system used as a control system in the safety system of the Advanced Power Reactor (APR) 1400 NPP.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.100-103
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• 1999

In this paper, a method for the efficient implementation of the PICNET network configurator for a distributed control system(DCS) is proposed. The network configurator is composed of the time parameter estimator and the period scheduler, the file generator. The main role of network configurator estimates time parameter, the pre-run time scheduling of the user input and make the period transmission table for operating the PICNET based distributed control system.