7 Dec 2010
 
 ASL provided a networked public address system for the Dungeness site

A networked public address system from UK-based ASL Safety & Security has been installed at the Dungeness site, a former nuclear power station in the southeast of England now being decommissioned.

The Dungeness project features customised microphones connected to the client's voice information consoles with toggle switching that triggers digital voice announcement (DVA) messages. The four-zone monitored PA system covers much of Dungeness A which is a legacy Magnox power station. 

Areas where access to the public address system can be obtained by microphone include the central control room, emergency indication centre, emergency control room and reception.

Following a successful first phase, ASL's rack-mounted Intellevac voice information network was installed to BS 5839-8:2008-compliant standards in the nuclear facility's accommodation block which has been created so that staff can be moved off site while a new building with improved IT facilities has been constructed.

The power station is using ASL's digital microphone stations monitored by audio routers with full digital signal processing. The units are fully software-configurable and they feature built-in DVAs and fire system interfaces. The network interface adapter used here (VAR-NIA) is a rack mount unit that allows routers to be interfaced to ASL's Intellevac voice alarm network, all to BS 5839-8:2008. The audio control unit can be wall or rack-mount.

The audio router in use at Dungeness (VAR12) is supplying the client, Magnox South, with full remote control, configuration and fault reporting through a serial interface. ASL offers a remote diagnostics product that can interrogate the status of remote routers through a web browser.

Dungeness A stands on a 91-hectare shingle peninsula site on the Kent coast. Construction began in 1960 and the facility supplied electricity to the UK national grid for 40 years. Magnox South Ltd is working on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to manage the work safely, efficiently and with due care for the environment.