FirmSys, China's first indigenously-developed Integrated Digital I&C System (DCS) solutions for nuclear power plants, started functioning at Yangjiang Nuclear Power Co of China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) on Tuesday, allowing China to end its reliance on other countries' in this area.
The application of the nuclear-grade DCS product with proprietary intellectual property rights was significant in the field of equipment manufacturing for China's nuclear power apparatus.
DCS works as a nuclear power station's "nerve center," playing an important role in safe and stable operations. For a long time, only some advanced countries had core technologies of the nuclear-grade DCS which safely shuts down a nuclear reactor and handles accidents. China has always relied on imports for purpose.
In 2003, the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in the US state of Ohio was infected with the Slammer worm, which led to a five-hour loss of safety monitoring at the plant. In 2010, Iran's first nuclear power plant, Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, was attacked by the powerful Stuxnet virus, which led to a shutdown of the nuclear program.
According to China Economic Weekly, network attacks against nuclear power plants have occurred frequently in the world. The covert attacks against atomic power plants pose a bigger security threat than missiles.
International nuclear security experts pointed out that none of the previous major nuclear accidents in the world involved failure of the control system. However, if something went wrong with the control system, national security could be threatened.
