IEC 61513:2026 pdf download,Nuclear power plants – Instrumentation and control important to safety – General requirements for systems.
IEC 61513:2026 specifies requirements and guidance for the instrumentation and control (I&C) systems in nuclear power plants that are important to safety. It focuses on “overall” I&C, which can include one or several technologies such as conventional hardwired equipment, computer-based equipment, or combinations of both. A key message is that the safety goals of the plant must be translated into complete and precise requirements first; those requirements then drive the design and verification of the I&C architecture and the individual safety-related I&C systems.
The standard introduces a safety lifecycle approach for two levels: (1) the overall I&C, including architecture definition, and (2) the individual systems important to safety. This lifecycle frames how safety objectives relate to architecture requirements, and how architecture requirements cascade into system requirements. It also emphasizes structuring and planning the I&C architecture—dividing it into systems and assigning I&C functions to those systems—while identifying design criteria that support defense-in-depth and limit common-cause failure risks.
In addition to architecture and system requirements, IEC 61513 covers integration activities and the later phases of the lifecycle, including commissioning, operation, and maintenance. It applies not only to new nuclear power plants but also to upgrades or back-fitting existing plants, using only a subset of requirements depending on the project scope. Overall, it acts as a framework standard that deepens and contextualizes broader system lifecycle concepts (e.g., ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288) specifically for nuclear safety I&C demonstration