NPP published best practices in WANO database

Nuclear Power Plant Krško builds a Splunk Database on NetApp to reduce unplanned outages and improve operational effectiveness. Today, their search application is a role model to improve safety and efficiency at Nuclear Power Plants worldwide.

About the Customer

The Nuclear Power Plant Krško (NPP), located in Slovenia, was put in full production in 1983. Today, the plant’s performance indicators score in the top twenty-five percent of the nuclear power plants worldwide.

The Challenge

Until recently, employees at the NPP used many different applications for their work. This was very time consuming and the likelihood of errors due to many different systems was much higher than with one streamlined information source.

Besides unifying the application landscape at the power plant, the IT team also had to incorporate internal operating experiences within the same application. The Nuclear Power Plant has an extensive database that documents experiences and knowledge since the plants set-up and includes over 100k records. To make most effective use of this database, an effective search was needed to screen through all records and use the knowledge when it is needed most.

The Solution

To tackle this challenge the IT team at the NPP developed a solution called IZI Operating Experience (OPEX). The main purpose is to provide a simple and easy to use search tool. It is developed on a Splunk Enterprise Platform which is a powerful platform for searching through heterogeneous data sources and can easily be integrated with the existing business applications.

NetApp technology was used as a central storage in the Data Center, which serves the business applications area. NPP is a NetApp customer since 2002; in 2015 they decided to consolidate storage in one central platform for all business data. Back then, a Fabric MetroCluster with FAS8040 in two separate locations was build. The power plant is using CIFS, FCP and NFS protocols and SnapVault, Snap Restore and FlexClone functionalities. On a third location, NPP has also deployed FAS2240 as a backup storage, using SnapVault technology.

The Results

After implementing Splunk on NetApp, data became available fast and easily. This reduces the likelihood of unplanned outages and improves operational effectiveness with impact on the plants revenue. As a member of The World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), NPP shared their IZI Good Practice search application with other WANO members. Today, WANO recommends similar solutions to be implemented in all Nuclear Power Plants worldwide to improve operational safety and reliability.