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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.
Y. S. Bae, M. Joung, H. L. Yang, W. Namkung, M. H. Cho, H. Park, R. Prater, R. A. Ellis, J. Hosea
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 4 | May 2011 | Pages 640-646
Technical Paper | Sixteenth Joint Workshop on Electron Cyclotron Emission and Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (EC-16) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A11727
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Electron cyclotron heating and current drive (ECH/ECCD) has become an essential tool for fusion plasma research in toroidal devices. In the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) tokamak, development of a high power and multifrequency ECH/ECCD system is in progress. The multiple frequency sources employed in KSTAR (84 GHz and 110 GHz have been used, and 170 GHz and possibly 140 GHz are planned) support the wide range of operating magnetic fields from [approximately]1.5 to 3.5 T. In particular, 170-GHz power, which will be used on ITER, corresponds to the second harmonic of the cyclotron frequency for the KSTAR operating range from 2.5 to 3.5 T. This frequency will be mainly used for control of the local plasma current profile, in order to manipulate the internal magnetohydrodynamic instabilities such as the sawtooth and neoclassical tearing mode, which can be harmful to steady-state high-beta operation. This paper presents the status of the KSTAR ECH/ECCD program and the ray-tracing calculations of the 170-GHz electron cyclotron wave propagation for various plasma conditions in KSTAR. In the ray-tracing simulation, the TORAY-GA ray-tracing code is used to study the dependence of the ECH/ECCD on the plasma profiles as a function of the beam aiming angles.