Intelligent graphite core condition monitoring

Condition monitoring of graphite cores has increased significantly in recent years, as the safety cases required to continue operation of Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors (AGR) have evolved. This paper describes the development and implementation of intelligent systems designed to automate and formalise the CM analyses and tasks performed within the remit of the Monitoring Assessment Panels, which are currently being rolled out across the AGR fleet. The implementation of such systems is found to depend crucially on the involvement of station staff at each step of design and implementation, which is highlighted by the successful deployment of second iterations of the IMAPS system for managing reactor observations and the BETA system for automatically analysing refuelling data. Though each system was initially based on an individual analysis or tasks, this paper describes more recent work to allow closer integration of the systems as they are developed, in order to maximise the use of the available data while minimising duplication of effort and required operator time.