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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.
Lung Kwang Pan, Cheng Si Tsao
Nuclear Technology | Volume 102 | Number 3 | June 1993 | Pages 313-322
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A17030
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A nondestructive measurement of spent fuel pins from the Taiwan Research Reactor has been performed at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research. The analysis is based on a simplified balance equation for integrated flux and a series of one-group burnup-dependent microscopic cross-section libraries. A semiempirical test is used for evaluating the burnup values of two different kinds of spent fuel pins [natural uranium (0.7% 235U) and enriched uranium (7.0% 235U)] by the 134Cs/137Cs activity ratio. Results are compared with radiochemical burnup measurements. The agreement is within 3.8%, which verifies the accuracy of this method. The results are also compared with a theoretical estimation by the ORIGEN-II code. This indicates that the ORIGEN-II code’s library might have an overestimated σa (133Cs), which leads to a 134Cs/137Cs ratio that would result in a burnup value ∼24 to 35% lower than the measured data.