Alarm set points should be determined to ensure that the operating crew can monitor and take appropriate action for each category of alarms, e.g., respond to out-of-tolerance conditions, in a timely manner.
Additional Information:
Alarms are established to help ensure that the plant remains within SAR and technical specification limits. In order to achieve this, the setpoints may be specified at conservative levels that are well within the actual limits to allow sufficient response time for operators and plant systems. Thus, where practical, alarm setpoints should be determined such that the operator is alerted before a major system or component problem results in a condition which causes a loss of availability (e.g., plant trip), equipment damage, violation of SAR and technical specification requirements, or other serious consequences. Other criteria are acceptable if they do not compromise these factors.