Qualification Strategy of New Technologies for Safety Instrumentation in Harsh Radiation Environments

Qualification of safety instrumentation for nuclear reactors is a challenging issue in harsh radiation environments; the task is further complicated when new technologies are introduced. In this paper, we present two qualification strategies for new developments qualified to the highest safety standards. In the first case study, we develop a qualification method that quantifies the aging rate of a polymer during different aging steps, thus paving the way to predictive maintenance for safety qualified instrumentation. In the second case study, we propose a qualification strategy for a fiber optic-based probe which is supposed to implement a safety function in an extreme radiation environment that will expose the probe to 800 MGy over its lifetime.