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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.
Akio Yamamoto, Akinori Giho, Tomohiro Endo
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 3 | March 2019 | Pages 253-268
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1516961
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To reduce angular and spatial discretization error of the method of characteristics with a coarse calculation condition, the regionwise even-parity discontinuity factor (EPDF) for transport calculations is evaluated through an iterative procedure using only the regionwise scalar flux, i.e., without the odd-parity angular flux, the partial current, or the net current at the region boundary. The regionwise EPDF is evaluated in a single-assembly geometry with the reflective boundary condition. The evaluated EPDF is applied to a 2 × 2 colorset assembly and core configurations, and the performance is compared to that of the conventional superhomogenization (SPH) method. The calculation results indicate that (1) no convergence issue is observed during the iteration process to estimate the EPDF, (2) the performance of the regionwise EPDF is better than that of the conventional SPH method, and (3) the normalization of the EPDF is necessary to incorporate different surface scalar flux levels among different types of fuel assemblies.