CAMS as a tool for identifying and predicting abnormal plant states using real-time simulation

CAMS (Computerised Accident Management Support) is a system that provides assistance to the staff in a nuclear power plant control room, in the technical support centre and in the national safety centre. Support is offered in identification of the current plant state, in assessment of the future development of the accident and in planning mitigation strategies. CAMS is a modular system, where several modules perform different tasks under the control and supervision of a central knowledge based system, which is responsible of the syncronisation and the flow of information through the activated modules. A CAMS prototype has been tested by the Swedish Nuclear Inspectorate during a safety exercise in Sweden in 1995, with satisfactory results. Future developments include automatic control of the Predictive Simulator by the State Identification, for the generation of possible mitigation strategies, and the development of an improved user interface which considers the integration of the system in an advanced control room. CAMS is a system developed as a joint research activity at the Halden Reactor Project in close cooperation with member organizations. The project, started in 1993, has now arrived to the second prototype version, which has been presented and demonstrated at several seminars and workshops around the world.