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Model checking reveals design issues leading to spurious actuation of nuclear instrumentation and control systems

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  • Pakonen, Antti
  • Buzhinsky, I
  • Björkman, K

Abstract

A spurious actuation of an industrial instrumentation and control (I&C) system is a failure mode where the system or its component inadvertently produces an operation without a justified reason to do so. Design issues leading to spurious failures are difficult to analyse, but pose a high risk for safety. Model checking is a formal verification method that can be used for exhaustive analysis of I&C systems. In this paper, we explain how formal properties that address spurious failures can be specified, and how model checking can then be used to verify I&C application logic designs based on vendor-specific function block diagrams. Based on over ten years of successful practical projects in the Finnish nuclear industry, we present 21 real-world design issues (representing 37% of all detected issues), each involving a systemic failure that could lead to spurious actuation of nuclear safety I&C. We then describe how random failures of the underlying hardware architecture—another cause for spurious actuation—can also be included in the models. With an experimental evaluation based on real-world nuclear industry models, we demonstrate that our method can be effectively used for the verification of single failure tolerance.

Suggested Citation

  • Pakonen, Antti & Buzhinsky, I & Björkman, K, 2021. "Model checking reveals design issues leading to spurious actuation of nuclear instrumentation and control systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:reensy:v:205:y:2021:i:c:s0951832020307377
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2020.107237
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alanen, Jarmo & Linnosmaa, Joonas & Malm, Timo & Papakonstantinou, Nikolaos & Ahonen, Toni & Heikkilä, Eetu & Tiusanen, Risto, 2022. "Hybrid ontology for safety, security, and dependability risk assessments and Security Threat Analysis (STA) method for industrial control systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    2. Paweł Szcześniak & Iwona Grobelna & Mateja Novak & Ulrik Nyman, 2021. "Overview of Control Algorithm Verification Methods in Power Electronics Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-20, July.

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