Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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A Comparative Study of Formal Methods for Safety Critical Software in Nuclear Power Plant

  • Sedo Sohn (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Seong, Poong-Hyun (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
  • Published : 2000.12.01
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Abstract

The requirement of ultra high reliability of the safety critical software can not be demonstrated by testing alone. The specification based on formal method is recommended for safety system software. But there exist various kinds of formal methods, and this variety of formal method is recognized as an obstacle to the wide use of formal method. In this paper six different formal method have been applied to the same part of the functional requirements that is calculation algorithm intensive. The specification results were compared against the criteria that is derived from the characteristics that good software requirements specifications should have and regulatory body recommends to have. The application experience shows that the critical characteristics should be defined first, then appropriate method has to be selected. In our case, the Software Cost Reduction method was recommended for internal condition or calculation algorithm checking, and statechart method is recommended for the external behavioral description.

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References

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