The product of Fangjiashan Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) Unit1 Fuel Handling and Storage (PMC) System is the first Chinese PMC system, with its own intellectual property rights. During the development and design lifecycle for the product, China Nuclear Control System Engineering Co., Ltd (CNCS) was responsible for Verification and Validation (V&V) processes of the PMC system, taking a significant role for ensuring the reliability and safety of the software in PMC system. The PMC V&V project is also the first ever independent V&V project of the China nuclear industry.
V&V is a technical discipline of systems engineering. The purpose of V&V is to help the development team build quality into the system during the life cycle. The V&V processes determine whether the product developed satisfies its intended use and user’s needs. V&V provides an objective assessment of products and processes throughout the life cycle. This assessment demonstrates whether the requirements are correct, complete, accurate, consistent, and testable.
CNCS V&V PMC project team performed PMC V&V activities in compliance with IEEE Std 1012-1998, which is endorsed by NRC Regulatory Guide 1.168-2004. After critical analyses by V&V team, the Software Integrity Level (SIL) of PMC is SIL3, so associated V&V activities must conform to the minimum tasks list in IEEE Std 1012-1998 Table 1. After 2 years of hard working, Fangjiashan NPP Unit1 PMC system V&V activities have been completed. The whole activities and methodology was passed the final evaluation by the customer and was highly compliment by the international V&V expert committee at year of 2012.
This paper discusses how to establish V&V organization and infrastructure, and then how to perform V&V activities in high quality, and the specific new and best practice methods, approach and tools for executing V&V tasks. Because the PMC V&V project is the first ever independent V&V project of the China nuclear industry, the methods, approach and tools which was executed in the whole lifecycle and depicted in this paper could help to guide and be referred by the future V&V activities and projects.
