Control system to replace ageing Vax

An Industrial Technology Systems (ITS) product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 22, 2007

Industrial Technology Systems has won a contract to replace a supervisory control and tracking system at Sellafield with a more reliable, robust and maintainable alternative.

Industrial Technology Systems has won a contract valued at more than GBP 450,000 from British Nuclear Group to replace a supervisory control and tracking system at Sellafield with a more reliable, robust and maintainable alternative.

British Nuclear Group, a global nuclear company, specialises in reducing hazard by delivering accelerated clean-up programmes for customers in a safe and cost-effective way.

British Nuclear Group closes down and cleans up redundant nuclear facilities in the UK, Europe and the USA.

The company is also known for power operations, fuel production and international transportation.

Since the mid 1990s the waste treatment complex at Sellafield has been responsible for contaminated waste processing.

The complex currently has a system which includes a number of PLCs linked to a Scada system running on a Vax computer system.

The system stores and retrieves product and process data via an Oracle 7 database hosted on an Alpha computer platform.

The purpose of the project is to replace the Vax and Alpha-based software with modern, reliable, supportable equivalents running on industry-standard Windows operating systems.

The new supervisory control and tracking system based on a modern Scada system and Oracle's latest version of software will provide data storage and retrieval facilities for the waste treatment complex.

The interface to the Scada system will enable the data to be collected and displayed and operational sequences will be carried out via the PLCs.

Data will also be collected by the system to determine the radiological content within the drum.

This data will also be stored in the database and related to the correct drum via its unique barcode.

The project will be completed in two stages.

Phase 1 will involve the production of the documentation and the system configuration.

This will be achieved through desk top analysis of the existing documentation and reverse engineering of the existing system at ITS' Head Office in Middlesbrough.

The activities in Phase 2 will include the design, build and implementation of the replacement system to meet the functional specification produced in Phase 1.

Throughout the project ITS' engineers will be responsible for offering advice on improvement strategies for both the database design and system architecture.

The system will be installed in April 2007.

Commenting on the company's relationship and success with the British Nuclear Group, Malcolm Knott, Managing Director of Industrial Technology Systems said: "Since 1996, we have been heavily involved in the design, implementation and support of process control systems for a number of nuclear sites including Sellafield".

"In March 2002 we were successfully audited by the British Nuclear Group and achieved formal accreditation, enabling our engineers to carry out work on safety-related systems".

"I am delighted that we have won this new project as it has given us the opportunity to strengthen and maintain our existing partnership with the team at the Sellafield site".