The Instrumentation, Control, and Intelligent Systems (ICIS) science signature will lead the development of advanced instrumentation, control, and intelligent systems to support next-generation power and energy security systems. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) will advance current instrumentation and control methods that focus on controlling sub-processes and components by designing and implementing intelligent systems in which the state of the entire process is optimized. This vision will be accomplished by increasing performance, reliability, security, and safety through critical human-centered design, automation, and intelligent systems investments.
Provide Systems Solutions for Nuclear Energy, National Security, and Energy Security Programs
Cost-effective and inexpensive increases in system performance, reliability, security, and safety result from ICIS research and development (R&D). Effective application of revolutionary advances in ICIS technology leverage the billions invested in nuclear, national security, and energy security infrastructure. In many of these systems, any accident or failure is unacceptable; thus, ICIS investments are required.
Table 1 summarizes needs for current, evolutionary, and revolutionary ICIS R&D in our Department of Energy (DOE) mission focus areas. ICIS research activities, though initially focused on unique nuclear energy, national security, and energy security needs, will have broad application across all three areas.
Enable Energy Security and Economic Growth
Because of the potential to realize tremendous cost benefits, process efficiency, productivity, and safety gains, ICIS is a critical enabler of control systems required for future energy production and security. For example, next-generation nuclear power plants must be stable, secure, and fail-safe to gain public support. This will require ICIS designs that use redundant and diverse technologies, and consider the security and safety impacts of a failure as well as sensors and controls that are able to predict failure and continue to perform, even in unforeseeable accident conditions. The information collected by these systems must then be presented to the operators in a way that will support accurate and timely decision-making. Industrial applications of intelligent systems are also of great importance to the economic success and competitiveness of the U.S. Our nation must be first to develop new ways to increase the performance, reliability, security, and safety of manufacturing and processing systems, resulting in increased productivity, reduced energy consumption, and reduced overall cost.
Improve Performance, Reliability, Security, and Safety
ICIS offers the opportunity to make revolutionary changes in current operating methods for many complex systems; it offers the opportunity to move from current component control approaches to an overall system control approach, and changes how humans interact with dull, dirty, or dangerous processes. The reliability, productivity, security, and safety of such systems will be improved enormously by introducing intelligent controls and instrumentation that provide humans with just the right information at just the right time to make the decisions necessary to support a process. This roadmap lays out the required strategies, research areas, and capabilities necessary to achieve these advances.
| INL Mission Focus | ICIS R&D Stages | Critical R&D Accomplishments for Each Stage |
|---|---|---|
| Nuclear Energy | Current Applications | Update current control systems to provide operators with predictive systems so they can reliably determine the health of processes during both gradual and abrupt changes |
| Evolutionary | Provide system quality measurements as inputs to a lifetime prediction model that then optimizes process parameters to extend the lifetime of the nuclear plant | |
| Revolutionary |
Enable reliance on digital systems and automation required to support a “100-person” plant for the very high-temperature reactor concept Develop systems that anticipate and mitigate the effects of potential system failures to optimize plant efficiency, maintain high availability, and ensure system safety margin |
|
| National Security | Current | Test full-scale physical security and cyber infrastructure systems, determine weaknesses, and develop methods to protect systems from malicious and unintentional attacks based on quantifiable prioritization of safety and economic concerns |
| Evolutionary |
Develop efficient and secure nuclear fuel cycle monitoring systems with integrated safeguards and proliferation detection solutions that provide real-time material accountancy techniques to increase safety Develop supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) control technologies that support the paradigm shift from “resist to attack” to “survive and adapt” in secure control system designs to maintain reliable process performance |
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| Revolutionary | Proactively recognize and respond to a potential threat before a control system is compromised, ensuring system integrity | |
| Energy Security | Current | Develop sensors capable of surviving for long periods in severe environments (i.e., extreme temperature, radiation, harsh chemicals) and capable of monitoring more than one process parameter |
| Evolutionary |
Research and design sensors, control systems, and algorithms that allow plants and autonomous systems to operate at the plant design point by reducing measurement uncertainty Implement condition-based maintenance strategies to increase performance and reliability |
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| Revolutionary |
Reduce operator burden and increase operator situational awareness by developing interfaces that incorporate high level, plain language commands, voice recognition capabilities, and bi-directional human/control system communications Develop sensors and controls with the ability to recognize and adapt to the health of systems, resulting in significant increases in system efficiency, lifetime, reliability, security, and safety. |
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- Contacts:
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Signature Lead: Herschel Smartt, (208) 526-8333, Send E-mail
Nuclear Programs: Bruce Hallbert, (208) 526-9867, Send E-mail
Science & Technology: Derek Wadsworth, (208) 526-8514, Send E-mail
National & Homeland Security: Craig Rieger, (208) 526-4136, Send E-mail