IEC TR 62918:2014

Nuclear power plants - Instrumentation and control important to safety - Use and selection of wireless devices to be integrated in systems important to safety

IEC TR 62918:2014 describes the state of wireless technology for industrial applications in fossil and chemical plants and discusses the specific issues to be addressed in order to apply wireless technologies to nuclear power plants.

General Information

• Status: Withdrawn
• Publication Date: 14-Jul-2014
• Withdrawal Date: 14-Jul-2022
• ICS: 01 - GENERALITIES. TERMINOLOGY. STANDARDIZATION. DOCUMENTATION
• ICS: 27.120.20 - Nuclear power plants. Safety
• Technical Committee: SC 45A - Instrumentation, control and electrical power systems of nuclear facilities
• Drafting Committee: WG 9 - TC 45/SC 45A/WG 9
• Current Stage: WPUB - Publication withdrawn
• Start Date: 15-Jul-2022
• Completion Date: 18-Jul-2022

Standards Content (Sample)

IEC TR 62918 ®
Edition 1.0 2014-07
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Nuclear power plants – Instrumentation and control important to safety –
Use and selection of wireless devices to be integrated in systems
important to safety
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or

your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

IEC Central Office Tel.: [phone]
3, rue de Varembé Fax: [phone]

CH-1211 Geneva 20 [e-mail]
Switzerland www.iec.ch
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigenda or an amendment might have been published.

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documents. Available for PC, Mac OS, Android Tablets and additional languages. Also known as the International
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The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a More than 55 000 electrotechnical terminology entries in
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical English and French extracted from the Terms and Definitions
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced clause of IEC publications issued since 2002. Some entries
and withdrawn publications. have been collected from earlier publications of IEC TC 37,

77, 86 and CISPR.
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IEC TR 62918 ®
Edition 1.0 2014-07
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Nuclear power plants – Instrumentation and control important to safety –

Use and selection of wireless devices to be integrated in systems

important to safety
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
PRICE CODE
XB
ICS 27.120.20 ISBN 978-2-8322-1750-4

– 2 – IEC 62918:2014  IEC 2014

CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 5

INTRODUCTION . 7

1 Scope . 9

2 Normative references . 9

3 Terms and definitions . 9

4 Motivation . 11

5 Generic applications . 13
6 Technology . 16
6.1 Wireless basics . 16
6.2 Industrial wireless sensor networks . 19
6.3 Radio frequency . 20
6.3.1 Applications . 20
6.3.2 802.11 (Wi-Fi), 802.15.1 (Bluetooth), 802.15.4 (sensors) . 23
6.4 Satellite leased channels and VSAT . 25
6.5 Magnetic field communications . 26
6.6 Visual light communication (VLC) . 27
6.7 Acoustic communication. 27
6.8 Asset tracking utilizing IEEE 802.11 – Focus on received signal strength . 28
6.9 Asset tracking (RFID/RTLS): ISO 24730 . 29
7 Current wireless technology implementations . 30
7.1 General . 30
7.2 Comanche Peak nuclear generating station . 30
7.3 Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO) nuclear power plant . 31
7.4 Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant . 32
7.5 Farley nuclear power plant . 33
7.6 San Onofre nuclear generating station . 33
7.7 South Texas project electric generating station . 34
7.8 High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), Oak Ridge, TN . 34
8 Considerations . 36
8.1 General . 36
8.2 Concerns regarding wireless technology . 36

8.3 Wireless deployment challenges . 37
8.4 Coexistence of 802.11 and 802.15.4 . 38
8.5 Signal propagation . 40
8.6 Lessons learned from wireless implementations . 41
8.6.1 General . 41
8.6.2 Comanche Peak implementation . 41
9 Concerns . 42
9.1 Common reliability and security concerns for wired media and wireless
media. 42
9.2 Reliability and security concerns that are more of an issue for wired systems . 42
9.3 Reliability and security concerns that are more of an issue for wireless
systems . 42
10 Standards . 43
10.1 Nuclear standards . 43

IEC 62918:2014  IEC 2014 – 3 –

10.1.1 General . 43

10.1.2 IEEE Std. 603-1998 . 43

10.1.3 IEEE Std. 7-4.3.2-2003 . 44

10.1.4 IEC 61500 . 44

10.2 Other safety-related standards and guidelines . 45

10.2.1 IEC 61784-3 . 45

10.2.2 VTT research notes 2265. 46

10.2.3 European Workshop on Industrial Computer Systems – Technical

Committee 7 (EWICS TC7) . 47

11 Conclusions . 47

11.1 Issues for wireless application to NPP . 47
11.2 Recommendations . 48
Annex A (informative) Use of 5 GHz in the world . 50
Annex B (informative) Synopses of wireless technologies . 51
B.1 802.11 . 51
B.2 ISO 14443 Near Field Communications (NFC) . 56
B.3 Real details of mesh networking . 59
B.4 Not all mesh networks are created equal – Latency and indeterminism in
mesh networks . 62
B.5 ISA100.11a – “Mesh – When You Need It – Networking” . 63
B.6 Security by non-routing edge nodes . 66
B.7 Device and network provisioning methods . 67
Bibliography . 69

Figure 1 – Cost comparison – Wired versus wireless for an extensive building
automation system . 12
Figure 2 – Wireless use in nuclear power plants . 12
Figure 3 – Possible application areas for wireless instrumentation in a nuclear power
plant . 13
Figure 4 – Bandwidth requirements for a variety of applications and the associated
wireless technology that can support such requirements . 14
Figure 5 – Structured fabric design of layered wireless for an industrial facility . 15
Figure 6 – Inexpensive wireless sensors in a fossil-fuel plant . 16
Figure 7 – Functional hierarchy . 18

Figure 8 – Simplified diagram of a generic wireless sensor design . 19
Figure 9 – Standard compliant network . 20
Figure 10 – 802.15.1 (Bluetooth) frequency channels in the 2 450 MHz range . 23
Figure 11 – 802.15.4 frequency channels in the 2 450 MHz range . 24
Figure 12 – Overlapping channel assignments for 802.11 operation in the 2 400 MHz
range . 24
Figure 13 – 802.11n dual stream occupies 44 MHz of bandwidth. Dual stream 802.11n
in the 2,4 GHz band . 25
Figure 14 – VSAT mini-hub network configuration . 26
Figure 15 – Spatial resolution is provided in multiple axes only if the tag (target in this
Figure) is in communications with multiple APs . 28
Figure 16 – ISO 24730-2 architecture . 29
Figure 17 – Wireless vibration system at ANO . 32
Figure 18 – ANO wireless tank level system . 33

– 4 – IEC 62918:2014  IEC 2014

Figure 19 – Installation of accelerometers on ORNL HFIR cold source expansion

engines (9-2010) .
...

IEC TR 62918 ®
Edition 1.0 2014-07
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Nuclear power plants – Instrumentation and control important to safety –
Use and selection of wireless devices to be integrated in systems
important to safety
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

IEC Central Office Tel.: [phone]
3, rue de Varembé Fax: [phone]
CH-1211 Geneva 20 [e-mail]
Switzerland www.iec.ch
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigenda or an amendment might have been published.

IEC Catalogue - webstore.iec.ch/catalogue Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
The stand-alone application for consulting the entire The world's leading online dictionary of electronic and
bibliographical information on IEC International Standards, electrical terms containing more than 30 000 terms and
Technical Specifications, Technical Reports and other definitions in English and French, with equivalent terms in 14
documents. Available for PC, Mac OS, Android Tablets and additional languages. Also known as the International
iPad. Electrotechnical Vocabulary (IEV) online.

IEC publications search - www.iec.ch/searchpub IEC Glossary - std.iec.ch/glossary
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a More than 55 000 electrotechnical terminology entries in
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical English and French extracted from the Terms and Definitions
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced clause of IEC publications issued since 2002. Some entries
and withdrawn publications. have been collected from earlier publications of IEC TC 37,

77, 86 and CISPR.
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished

Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc
details all new publications released. Available online and If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or
also once a month by email. need further assistance, please contact the Customer Service
Centre: [e-mail].
IEC TR 62918 ®
Edition 1.0 2014-07
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Nuclear power plants – Instrumentation and control important to safety –

Use and selection of wireless devices to be integrated in systems

important to safety
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
PRICE CODE
XB
ICS 27.120.20 ISBN 978-2-8322-1750-4

– 2 – IEC 62918:2014  IEC 2014
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 5
INTRODUCTION . 7
1 Scope . 9
2 Normative references . 9
3 Terms and definitions . 9
4 Motivation . 11
5 Generic applications . 13
6 Technology . 16
6.1 Wireless basics . 16
6.2 Industrial wireless sensor networks . 19
6.3 Radio frequency . 20
6.3.1 Applications . 20
6.3.2 802.11 (Wi-Fi), 802.15.1 (Bluetooth), 802.15.4 (sensors) . 23
6.4 Satellite leased channels and VSAT . 25
6.5 Magnetic field communications . 26
6.6 Visual light communication (VLC) . 27
6.7 Acoustic communication. 27
6.8 Asset tracking utilizing IEEE 802.11 – Focus on received signal strength . 28
6.9 Asset tracking (RFID/RTLS): ISO 24730 . 29
7 Current wireless technology implementations . 30
7.1 General . 30
7.2 Comanche Peak nuclear generating station . 30
7.3 Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO) nuclear power plant . 31
7.4 Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant . 32
7.5 Farley nuclear power plant . 33
7.6 San Onofre nuclear generating station . 33
7.7 South Texas project electric generating station . 34
7.8 High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), Oak Ridge, TN . 34
8 Considerations . 36
8.1 General . 36
8.2 Concerns regarding wireless technology . 36
8.3 Wireless deployment challenges . 37
8.4 Coexistence of 802.11 and 802.15.4 . 38
8.5 Signal propagation . 40
8.6 Lessons learned from wireless implementations . 41
8.6.1 General . 41
8.6.2 Comanche Peak implementation . 41
9 Concerns . 42
9.1 Common reliability and security concerns for wired media and wireless
media. 42
9.2 Reliability and security concerns that are more of an issue for wired systems . 42
9.3 Reliability and security concerns that are more of an issue for wireless
systems . 42
10 Standards . 43
10.1 Nuclear standards . 43

IEC 62918:2014  IEC 2014 – 3 –
10.1.1 General . 43
10.1.2 IEEE Std. 603-1998 . 43
10.1.3 IEEE Std. 7-4.3.2-2003 . 44
10.1.4 IEC 61500 . 44
10.2 Other safety-related standards and guidelines . 45
10.2.1 IEC 61784-3 . 45
10.2.2 VTT research notes 2265. 46
10.2.3 European Workshop on Industrial Computer Systems – Technical
Committee 7 (EWICS TC7) . 47
11 Conclusions . 47
11.1 Issues for wireless application to NPP . 47
11.2 Recommendations . 48
Annex A (informative) Use of 5 GHz in the world . 50
Annex B (informative) Synopses of wireless technologies . 51
B.1 802.11 . 51
B.2 ISO 14443 Near Field Communications (NFC) . 56
B.3 Real details of mesh networking . 59
B.4 Not all mesh networks are created equal – Latency and indeterminism in
mesh networks . 62
B.5 ISA100.11a – “Mesh – When You Need It – Networking” . 63
B.6 Security by non-routing edge nodes . 66
B.7 Device and network provisioning methods . 67
Bibliography . 69

Figure 1 – Cost comparison – Wired versus wireless for an extensive building
automation system . 12
Figure 2 – Wireless use in nuclear power plants . 12
Figure 3 – Possible application areas for wireless instrumentation in a nuclear power
plant . 13
Figure 4 – Bandwidth requirements for a variety of applications and the associated
wireless technology that can support such requirements . 14
Figure 5 – Structured fabric design of layered wireless for an industrial facility . 15
Figure 6 – Inexpensive wireless sensors in a fossil-fuel plant . 16
Figure 7 – Functional hierarchy . 18
Figure 8 – Simplified diagram of a generic wireless sensor design . 19
Figure 9 – Standard compliant network . 20
Figure 10 – 802.15.1 (Bluetooth) frequency channels in the 2 450 MHz range . 23
Figure 11 – 802.15.4 frequency channels in the 2 450 MHz range . 24
Figure 12 – Overlapping channel assignments for 802.11 operation in the 2 400 MHz
range . 24
Figure 13 – 802.11n dual stream occupies 44 MHz of bandwidth. Dual stream 802.11n
in the 2,4 GHz band . 25
Figure 14 – VSAT mini-hub network configuration . 26
Figure 15 – Spatial resolution is provided in multiple axes only if the tag (target in this
Figure) is in communications with multiple APs . 28
Figure 16 – ISO 24730-2 architecture . 29
Figure 17 – Wireless vibration system at ANO . 32
Figure 18 – ANO wireless tank level system . 33

– 4 – IEC 62918:2014  IEC 2014
Figure 19 – Installation of accelerometers on ORNL HFIR cold source expansion
engines (9-2010) . 35
Figure 20 – Cold source expansion engine monitoring system software .
...