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Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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The human factor in licensing and operating the next generation of nuclear plants
As human factors specialists working at the intersection of human performance and nuclear operations, we are witnessing one of the nuclear sector’s most significant transitions in decades. The emergence of small modular reactors, microreactors, and other advanced designs is reshaping the industry’s landscape. Digital instrumentation and controls, passive safety systems, and increased automation are creating opportunities for greater safety margins and more flexible operation. These same features also fundamentally redefine what it means to “operate” a nuclear plant. Interactions among human roles, automation, and passive systems shape how people maintain awareness, exercise judgment, and intervene when necessary. These developments affect both operational realities and the regulatory foundations on which nuclear safety is built.
Workshop
Thursday, April 8, 2021|11:45AM–1:00PM EDT
Session Chair:
Xu Wu
Alternate Chair:
Ishita Trivedi
Session Organizer:
Edward Chen (NC State Univ.)
Track Organizer:
Session Producers:
Roberto Fairhurst-Agosta (Univ. of Ill., Urbana-Champaign)
Modern predictive simulations have a special focus on the systematic treatment of input, model and data uncertainties and their propagation through a computational model to produce predictions of Quantities-of-Interest (QoIs) with quantified uncertainty. Although the modeling of nuclear reactors has made tremendous progress, there are always discrepancies between ideal in silico designed systems and real-world manufactured ones. As a consequence, uncertainties must be quantified along with simulation to facilitate optimal design and decision making, ensure robustness, performance and safety margins. This workshop will provide an overview of the fundamental concepts in Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) and Sensitivity Analysis (SA), as well as comparative reviews of forward/inverse UQ and SA approaches. Topics on quantifying prediction uncertainties in Machine Learning models will also be briefly covered.
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