Radiy completed a reverse engineering project for the Pickering nuclear power plant in Ontario, Canada in 2015.

Pickering Nuclear Generating Station is an operating nuclear power plant in the southeast of Canada including four operating CANDU reactors.

The project provided the development, manufacture, testing, and supply of prototypes and a complete set of printed circuit board assemblies for Shutdown System 1 (SDS 1) Rod Ready Indicator Chassis for the CANDU reactors at Pickering nuclear power plant. Modernized components improve operational safety due to the improvements in reliability, consideration of the operational experience of the previous components, and enhancements to operational efficiency while extending the life cycle and assuring spare part availability.  

Shutdown system rod ready indicator PCB assemblies are used to indicate the fully withdrawn position of the reactor shutoff rods.

Radiy developed and manufactured the following: 

• Prototypes and a set of 56 production prototypes of SDS1 rod ready indicator PCB assemblies;
• Test chassis (research switching unit);
• Test bench control unit;
• Special test software.

The custom test bench configuration made it possible to simulate normal and extreme operational conditions for all PCBs in different Equipment under Test (EUT) configurations, which can potentially include up to seven PCBs per one system chassis. One or two different EUT configurations can be installed simultaneously in one Test Chassis to simulate operational conditions for up to 14 PCBs installed into one or two SDS 1 Rod Ready Indicator Chassis during one test stage for performance/functional (integration) and/or qualification testing.

Complete verification, testing and qualification of prototypes was carried out before production and delivery of the main batch of printed circuit boards. It included functional and qualification tests of board assemblies in accordance with the IEC 60068-2-78 requirements and in compliance with the requirements of the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) N290.13 standard.