The n4 instrumentation and control system (i&c), designed and developed by Atos Origin for EDF, the French electrical utility, is a major technological breakthrough in the world wide power industry: introduction of fully computer-aided control into 1450 MW nuclear power plants. ADACS™, the heart of the technology, is the best answer to such a challenge.

Business Challenge
In a nuclear power plant (NPP), a minor incident can lead to a critical situation if the operator is not able to sort relevant information rapidly from a saturated Man-Machine Interface. This is the reason why EDF decided to design a new control room concept for improving

• safety,
• reliability and
• efficiency

in each plant situation.

Solution
Apart from the usual features fulfilled by the I&C system, the new control room concept is based on:

• Modular software architecture,
• Parallel processing system,
• Performance compatible with emergency situations,
• Efficient alarm processing and synthetic presentation of information,
• Diagnosis aided operation in case of incident.

To reach these targets and at the same time to follow the French Safety Authorities' constraints
and recommandations, Atos Origin has implemented an integrated digital I&C system for the four French N4 NPP units.

Benefits
It is a well-known fact in industry that main risks come from human errors. The main advantage of this real-time technical platform is to assist operators to take faster and proper actions and therefore to greatly reduce risks in case of cascade of alarms. Improved safety mainly comes from an intelligent highly efficient alarm processing based on plant conditions and from operating procedures in normal, incidental and accidental unit conditions.

Operators are computer guided and stress relieved in a consistent environment to investigate problems and plan recovery actions. ADACS™ (Advanced Data processing And Control System) is the solution to build a safe and reliable control system in continuous industries, with full hot redundancy, openness and high performances. ADACS™ is already running in different industry sectors, such as Nuclear Power Generation, Electrical Network and Water Treatment, in France and abroad.

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