Case-Study: Nuclear Materials Inventory Management

Transcription

1 Case-Study: Nuclear Materials Inventory Management Background Energy Supplier in the UK currently uses a computer model known as FORCE which is designed to support operations at AGR (Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor) power stations. FORCE was primarily introduced to track the movement and storage of fuel elements in each of its fleet of AGR power stations and to produce reports on the movement and nuclear transformation of fissile material, in accordance with Euratom regulations. Fuel tracking covers the entire cycle, from receipt of new fuel from the supplier to the dispatch of irradiated or non-irradiated fuel off station. New Euratom regulations introduced amended requirements for reporting which had to be complied with by March British Energy reviewed the current software and established that a replacement tool for FORCE was required. The new tool, known as NuMAS (Nuclear Materials Accounting System), had to be compliant with all the data recording requirements to cover a) the fuel and component tracking requirements for day to day station operation and b) to cover all reporting requirements. The Nuclear Materials Accountancy System (NuMAS) was required Company Energy Supplier in the UK Country UK Industry Power Industry Solution Inventory Management System Technologies Oracle, Cimage MT Server Database Server Oracle Applications Server MS IIS web server, Cimage MT server Solution The system includes accounting and operating records and, in particular, information on the quantities, nature, form and composition of these materials, their actual location, the particular safeguarding obligation, and the way in which the persons or undertakings concerned have stated that they intend to use such materials. The implemented system features the following: Provision of regular reports in XML format rather than on paper. Provision of two ICR (Inventory Change) reports in the month a Physical Inventory is taken, one up to the PIT date and one from the PIT date to the end of the month. The operating system and database on the current system are no longer supported by the suppliers. Manual reporting using data extracted from a number of spreadsheets and SQL script are replaced with a more 'user friendly' reporting tool. The system provides the following basic functionality: Models the areas of the station covered by the fuel route.

2 Records the movements of nuclear fuel within the station. Records the movements of fuel assembly components within the station. Records the movements of non-fuel fissile materials (NFFM). Provides a user interface which enables the user to record movements, establish the whereabouts and status of items and request reports. Provides a reporting facility complying with the requirements of Euratom Regulation 302/2005 dated 8th February Enables ad-hoc reports to be generated easily without specialist knowledge. The functionality is split into the following functional areas: Receipt (the receipt of all fuel route related items is recorded in NuMAS. This relates to such items as fuel, components, fuel assemblies, containers and NFFM.) Location tracking (the location of items in the fuel route is recorded. Location may include any storage or work areas that hold fuel and fuel assembly components.) Movement tracking (NuMAS records the movement of items being tracked throughout the station fuel route model. All movements have an associated date and time.) Fuel assembly build instructions (the build instruction sheet typically requires details of: fuel box ID(s) from which the fuel is to be drawn, IDs of fuel elements to be used, component box IDs from which components are to be drawn for the assembly (optional)) Fuel transformation and decay heat (decay heat calculations are performed based on the date and time the fuel was loaded and discharged from the reactor for on-load refueling or the date and time of the reactor startup and shutdown for off-load refueling) Dispatch (all dispatches have associated packing sheets/dispatch notes produced by NuMAS) Printing and reporting (station-level reports, annual reports, ad-hoc reports)

3 User interface

4

5 The following specific user functions are included in the interface. The availability to a user of these functions is controlled through security permissions: The user is asked to confirm every transaction before it is recorded. The 'Undo' feature enables the last transaction to be undone even if confirmed. The 'back' feature enables the user to check what the last transaction was before undoing it. Reports can be previewed before they are printed or distributed electronically. Transaction error correction facility enables repairing errors that are identified following a review of the reports. Such an error facility leaves an auditable record of any change to the database. Technical Overview The NuMAS system uses an Oracle database running on Unix as its database server. The database is accessed by a Cimage MT Server also running on Unix. The system makes use of extensive facilities for handling record relationships, versioning, auditing etc., which are built into the Cimage server. Users interact with the system through web browsers running on Windows XP. These interact with a Microsoft IIS web server on which the NuMAS application and a set of standard Cimage Web Services are running. Result The developed system has fully met customer s expectations and ensured the following advantages by the use of the specified architecture: 1. Oracle and the Cimage MT Server and Web Service components are standard products with an extensive user base. They are therefore proven, robust and guaranteed to keep pace with platform revisions and changes. 2. NuMAS is built as an application using standard Web Service facilities, which greatly reduces the development time and cost and provides better reliability by reducing the amount of new code written. 3. The underlying Cimage technology maximises flexibility. New stations, Storage areas etc. can be added simply by using standard Cimage facilities. 4. Security of access is ensured by using standard Cimage technology which is already in place at BE. 5. The system has been deployed using client s existing Unix infrastructure. The required transaction rate can be easily handled using the existing Oracle and MT Server infrastructure. 6. The system has the capability to store paper based records relating to fuel and component movements. It also serves as an archive to store reports, packing lists and other data such as that derived from Panther.

6 About ITC Software ITC Software is an advanced information technology solutions provider, focused on the global commercial and scientific markets. With over 4047 software engineers in the Americas, Europe, Russia and Asia, and a host of world-renowned scientists at, inter alia, Harvard and MIT, ITC Software s services range from research & development in finance, bioinformatics and FEA engineering, to cutting-edge custom software development and maintenance services in most industry verticals, to the turnkey establishment of Offshore IT Centers. ITC Software has won numerous international awards and its centers are ISO 9001:2000 certified and CMMI level 4 pre-certified. Pricing is extremely competitive for both complex scientific applications such as bioinformatics and biomechanics, and commercial software development projects. Become a high performance enterprise with Strategic Outsourcing, visit ITC Software disclaims the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and makes no express warranties except as may be stated in its written agreement with and for its customer. In no event is ITC Software liable to anyone for any indirect, special or consequential damages or lost profits. The information and specifications in this document are subject to change without notice. ITC Software, All Rights Reserved. VERSION 1.00 RK