ARCHBALD, Pa., June 12 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin and a Chinese company are to built prototype and manufacture reactor protection systems for China's Generation III nuclear reactors.
Lockheed's partner is the State Nuclear Power Automation System Engineering Co., a subsidiary of China's State Nuclear Power Technology Corp.
"We recognize the importance of nuclear power as a critical energy alternative for increased demand and have been developing instrumentation and control systems for more than 55 years," said Jim Gribschaw, general manager of nuclear systems and solutions at Lockheed Martin. "We are committed to creating and implementing industry-specific solutions for civilian nuclear power plants, ensuring the safety of critical power generating infrastructure."
The nuclear safety instrumentation and control platform will be based on field programmable gate array technology and will specifically address safety and regulatory concerns related to software common-cause failures in digital nuclear safety systems.
Lockheed said the systems will monitor and detect potential failures in the system autonomously, will be featured in new nuclear plans and be an upgrade in existing power plants.
A Licensing Topical Report has been submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and China National Nuclear Safety Administration for generic digital safety instrumentation and control platforms.
Additional details were not disclosed.
