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A review of wireless sensor networks for nuclear power plant applications

BARI Ataul1 and JIANG Jin2

1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 5B9, Canada (abari2@uwo.ca)
2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 5B9, Canada (jjiang@eng.uwo.ca, corresponding author)
 
Abstract: Wireless sensor network (WSN) has attracted a lot of attention recently in nuclear power plants (NPPs) due to its potential to bring tremendous benefits to the plant and environment monitoring applications. Although there is no general consensus on using wireless technologies in NPPs yet; however, nuclear regulatory bodies and relevant organizations have undertaken efforts to provide guidelines for the requirements of wireless devices and systems in NPPs. Several applications of WSNs in NPPs have also been investigated, most noticeable of those include radiation level and dose monitoring, and equipment condition monitoring. Moreover, deployment of wireless systems in a NPP also faces unique challenges, which include i) absolute requirement to ensure that electromagnetic interference from a wireless system do not interfere with the functionality of existing safety system instruments in a plant, ii) robust device and system design to deliver reliable WSN performance in harsh NPP environments, and iii) strict compliance with the nuclear regulatory guidelines. This paper gives the reviews on the state of the art of WSNs in NPPs.
Keyword: nuclear power plant; equipment monitoring; wireless sensor networks
 
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