of recording of variables from one 
facility to another—e.g., panel to high- 
speed reducer or high-speed reducer to 
low-speed reducer, etc. Space limita- 
tions prevent use of conventional tele- 
phone-type jack panels. It is not 
unusual to be handling over 1,200 vari- 
ables in such a test facility. 
Clamp-in patchboards are used to 
schedule the variables into the data 
reducers. Upper left and lower right 
quadrants of the boards contain in- 
coming signals. The upper right quad- 
rant connects to the low-speed reducer, 
and the lower left goes to the high- 
speed unit. A spare board permits 
prewiring for the next test. It is ad- 
visable to use a 2-wire patchcord in- 
stead of a single-wire one as in other 
systems. This eliminates incorrect 
wiring of polarized inputs such as those 
from thermocouples. In wiring the 
board a close check must be made to 
avoid jumbled points. Pressure, tem- 
perature, and radiation channels are 
not interchangeable. 
If a central data-reduction system 
serves for several prototypes, push- 
button actuation of relay banks should 
be considered to switch in and out the 
inputs from various prototypes. 
Oscillographs 
Even with all of this data-recording 
equipment it is seldom satisfactory to 
the responsible engineers to have all 
the transient data recorded ‘“blind”’; 
that is, on tape. Significant channels 
are fed also into a high-impedance pen- 
type oscillograph so engineers can have 
an over-all view of trends of critical 
variables during a transient. Twelve 
channels are considered sufficient. 
The attitudes of engineers dictate 
the need of parallel recording systems 
such as oscillographs and strip-chart 
recorders. As a rule they want to 
“see” the transient while itis occurring. 
Outside of the instrument engineers few 
believe that their data will be success- 
fully recorded on the magnetic tape. 
When this human bottleneck has been 
broken, the use of chart recorders can 
be greatly restricted and _ possibly 
eliminated. 
Personnel 
The attitude of management, gener- 
ally governed by unfamiliarity with 
this equipment, is usually a great 
stumbling block. Two of their most 
frequent statements are, ‘“‘It sounds 
fine if you can get it to work,” and 
FIG. 4. High-speed data reducer used in studying prototype reactor 
“What do we do with all the data?” 
It may be pointed out that the aircraft 
industry has used automatic data- 
reduction equipment for the last 8 or 
9 years. 
We have two suggestions to reduce 
many ills: (1) Raise the level of oper- 
ators who will handle this equipment 
to at least second-year-college people. 
Second-year-high-school-level oper- 
ators do not operate IBM computers 
or simulator equipment. The com- 
plexity of data-reduction equipment is 
about the same as that of a computer 
or simulator. (2) Raise instrument- 
maintenance men to a level equal to 
the operators’. 
Cost 
Data-recording equipment for a nu- 
clear-power test facility can be ex- 
pected to cost $250,000—-300,000—about 
15%-of the total instrument budget. 
This cost is not unreasonable if you 
consider that the plant will cost about 
$20-million and that a computer 
equivalent to an IBM 704 generally 
handles the data from such a plant. 
The recording instruments and data 
handling should not be the weak links 
—the sources of errors. 
The cost of this instrumentation and 
the quantity of personnel required to 
produce it have always been considered 
high. A rule of thumb for the instru- 
ment cost in process chemical plants is 
that it is generally 6-10% of over-all 
expense. For test facilities, however, 
instrument costs are higher. There 
are large test facilities where instru- 
ments represent 25% of a total invest- 
ment of $10-million. Instrumentation 
in an early nuclear power plant cost 
about 5% of the total. This includes 
operational instruments as well as 
prototype-testing and 
instruments. 
Cost of recording facilities breaks 
down about as follows: 
operational 
Panel $ 70,000 
Low-speed reducer 40,000 
High-speed reducer 90,000 
Scram monitor 20,000 
12-channel pen- 
type oscillograph 10,000 
Console 3,000 
TOTAL $233,000 
Also required are thermocouples, pres- 
sure and Ap transmitters, and ionization 
chambers. The types and numbers 
of each can vary so much from system 
to system that it is inaccurate to guess 
the cost of each group. However, ex- 
perience shows that this equipment 
may exceed the expense of the record- 
ing equipment by as much as a factor 
of four. 
An indication of the expense involved 
in supplying sensing elements and re- 
lated electronics to provide suitable 
signals in the steam plant is as follows: 
65 temperatures $10,000 
8 pressure drops 6,000 
1 liquid level 800 
12 pressures 9,600 
2 flow rates 2,600 
1 conductivity 500 
TOTAL $29,500 
These costs may seem high, but they 
are standard for transient instrumenta- 
tion. It must be remembered that this 
$30,000 worth of instruments is in only 
the steam-generation part of the plant. 
Other systems such as the primary- 
coolant system and the reactor are even 
more highly instrumented and require 
costlier instruments because of strin- 
gent safety requirements. 
49 
