This paper outlines a framework for a diagnosis of a complex system with uncertain information. Sensor validation ploys a vital role in the ability of the overall system to correctly determine the state of a system monitored by imperfect sensors. Here, emphases are put on the heuristic technology and post-processor for reasoning. Heuristic Sensor Validation (HSV) exploits deeper knowledge about parameter interaction within the plant to cull sensor faults from the data stream. Finally the modified probability distributions and validated data are used as input to the reasoning scheme which is the runtime version of the influence diagram. The output of the influence diagram is a diagnostic mapping from the symptoms or sensor readings to a determination of likely failure modes. Once likely failure modes are identified, a detailed diagnostic knowledge base suggests corrective actions to improve performance. This framework for a diagnostic expert system with sensor validation and reasoning under uncertainty applies in $HEATXPRT^{TM}$ a data-driven on-line expert system for diagnosing heat rate degradation problems in fossil power plants [1].