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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.
Hyeon Tae Kim, Yonghee Kim
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 191 | Number 2 | August 2018 | Pages 136-149
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1463747
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Application of partial current–based coarse-mesh finite difference (pCMFD) acceleration to a one-node scheme is devised for stability enhancement of the parallel neutron transport calculation algorithm. Conventional one-node coarse-mesh finite difference (CMFD) allows parallel algorithms to be more tractable than two-node CMFD, but it has an inherent stability issue for some problems. In order to overcome this issue, pCMFD is modified to be fitted into the one-node scheme and is tested for both sequential and parallel calculations. The superior stability of the one-node pCMFD is shown by comparing results from analytic and numerical approaches. To investigate the convergence behavior of the acceleration methods in an analytic way, Fourier analysis is applied to an infinite homogeneous slab reactor configuration with the monoenergetic neutron flux assumption, and the spectral radius is calculated as a convergence factor. This paper carefully describes the process of the Fourier analysis on the parallel algorithm for neutron transport and compares it to that of the conventional sequential algorithm.