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A year after signing an agreement to prototype, manufacture and qualify nuclear power plant reactor protection systems for China's Generation III reactors, Lockheed Martin and SNPTC of China have opened a cooperative development facility in East Fort Worth, Texas that will house project leaders and engineers from China along with their Lockheed Martin counterparts.

Lockheed Martin and State Nuclear Power Automation System Engineering Company, a subsidiary of SNPTC, are cooperatively developing the Nuclear Protection and Control platform also known as NuPAC. The NuPAC platform is a modular, flexible and scalable solution that integrates into a broad range of nuclear plant safety applications. As part of the agreement, the NuPAC platform will be integrated into the Reactor Protection System for advanced Generation III nuclear power plants. The agreement includes activities for design, prototyping, qualification, and manufacturing of advanced FPGA-based reactor protection systems. The reactor protection system is designed to provide digital, safety-critical instrumentation & control functionality and offer monitoring and detection maintaining the safety of nuclear power plants, Lockheed Martin said

The FPGA-based platform will specifically address safety and regulatory concerns related to software common-cause failures in digital nuclear safety systems. These systems will autonomously and reliably monitor and detect potential failures in the system, ensuring the safe operation and function of the facility. The platform may be applied both in new plant deployment and in safety system upgrades for existing power plants, Lockheed Martin said.

These products are anticipated to be qualified in the next year (2015) and deployed worldwide during the next three to five years, according to Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed Martin provides safety and distributed control systems to the civil nuclear industry alongside nuclear instrumentation and control systems for defence industries.

Picture:
Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President Rick Edwards and China's State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation's (SNPTC) Chairman Wang Binghua cut the ribbon

Date: Tuesday, 01 July 2014
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newslockheed-martin-and-snpac-open-joint-project-office-4307083