Safety-Critical systems are prevalent in our everyday life. Yet, despite the increasing use of software in these systems, the tech community as a whole is largely unaware of issues, processes, and standards that reign and govern them. The presentation, ‘Determining Software Safety in Critical Systems’ provides an introductory overview of safety-critical systems, and how the software used within them, specifically, within the nuclear-energy industry, can be assured and verified up to standards that ensure our safety.

Horizon Nuclear Power intends to build advanced boiling water reactors at Wylfa and Oldbury in the United Kingdom based on the Hitachi-GE (Hitachi) design. In accordance with U.K. policy for new nuclear build, Hitachi, as the reactor designer, is the requesting party to the Generic Design Assessment (GDA), during which the reactor design will be reviewed by the Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency. An important step in the GDA process is to demonstrate the viability of the approach developed by Hitachi-GE for the assessment and justification of smart devices. This was done by means of pilot studies of safety class 1 (SC1) and SC2 devices. This paper describes the scope, criteria, process, and approach for the SC1 pilot study and summarizes the results of the study.

In normal nuclear power plant development/asset management a number of components are exchanged each year. For each of these exchange projects a licensing/safety demonstration is required.

ASCE 4.2 Feature Pack (FP3) is officially released and available for download.

Adelard LLP is pleased to appoint Nova Systems as one of the first organisations in Australia authorised to train companies on its leading software solution ASCE, for the development, maintenance and communication of Assurance and Safety Cases.