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overview of conditions throughout thedata acquisition system. Modules fromwhich there are currently no “signs oflife,” as well as malfunctioning ortemporarily deactivated modules, arespecially tagged, thus enabling modulefailures to be detected promptly.Another requirement to be met by themonitoring system was that measureddata be evaluated directly at their officePCs by the specialists responsible. Dueto the particular safety concerns ofa nuclear power plant, special measureshad to be taken in connection withnetwork topology, equipment hardwareand software infrastructures. Thefirst such step, for example, involvedseparating data acquisition and preprocessingfrom data storage. Users canonly access data that have been storedin a dedicated file server separate fromthe data acquisition system. The nextstep was to provide a separate PCon which the ADAM ® valve diagnosticsand evaluation software was installed.Authorized users can connect to thiscomputer from their office PCs througha firewall and use ADAM to analyzedata. Instead of downloading actualplant data, however, users only receivea graphical simulation of the applicationalong with the associated keyboardand mouse inputs. This ensures thatdata acquisition remains completelyseparate from data analysis.Moving TowardsCondition-BasedMaintenanceThe deployment of Framatome ANP’sADAM valve diagnostics and evaluationsoftware, together with Neckar-specificsoftware components for automatic dataanalysis, is paving the way for a transitionto condition-based maintenance. Thetrial run of the 200 SIPLUG modulesalready installed is progressing toeveryone’s satisfaction, data acquisitionis stable, transfer of old data has beencompleted and gradual progress is beingmade with data evaluation and trending.Qualification of the ADAM softwareand the plant-specific components isexpected to be finished by the end of2003. The last phase of the project willentail installing 1,500 SIPLUG modulesat the Neckar plant. ■DepartmentsNews in BriefJeumont CRDMs ReceiveN-Stamp CertificationCRDMs in the Jeumont S.A.workshop.SUSI to the RescueAuthors: Robert Friedl, engineer,department of mechanicalengineering, valves; RobertPantle, engineer, departmentof electrical engineering,actuators; Mathias Stein,physicist, department ofelectrical engineering, diagnostic.All are with the Neckar NuclearPower Station.Jeumont S.A., a Framatome ANPmanufacturing facility specializing incontrol rod drive mechanisms (CRDM)and reactor coolant pumps and motors,obtained the N-Stamp certification inDecember 2001. The first CRDMsmade to the ASME code were completedin June 2003 and accepted by the AIA(Authorized Inspection Agency), anorganization responsible for certifying thecompliance of the manufactured equipment,and by the American customer.The equipment bears the N-Stampand was shipped at the end of June.The N-stamp certification is animportant milestone for Jeumont S.A.A large proportion of their CRDMsare manufactured for the US market.In the course of this year’s annual refueling outage at Germany’s 1370 MWBrokdorf PWR plant, a Framatome ANP competitor that had been contractedto visually inspect the reactor coolant pumps and reactor coolantpiping from the inside was unable to inspect all areas of the reactor coolantpiping using the equipment at its disposal. Framatome ANP, contacted by theplant operator and inspection contractor, responded quickly and efficientlyto immediately deploy its service-proven underwater inspection vehicle “SUSI”to the plant. The results of the inspections performed with SUSI wereaccepted at once by both the independent inspectors and the authorities with noresulting delay in the outage time schedule. The operator of Brokdorf issueda special thanks to Framatome ANP for coming to the rescue so quickly .Advanced Nuclear Power N O 9 November 2003 19