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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.
Naeem M. Abdurrahman, Georgeta Radulescu, Igor Carron
Nuclear Technology | Volume 127 | Number 3 | September 1999 | Pages 315-331
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A3004
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Saxton critical experiments, which used mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel of 6.6 wt% PuO2 in natural UO2 and UO2 fuel of 5.74 wt% 235U, are analyzed with MCNP-4B and continuous-energy cross-section libraries ENDF/B-V and ENDF/B-VI. An excellent agreement of calculated and experimental effective multiplication factors for the entire set of 1.3208-cm MOX lattices and 1.4224-cm MOX and UO2 lattices was obtained. The analysis of criticality calculations for the five different lattice pitches show a bias with lattice pitch, which led to an increase of ~0.8% when doubling the lattice pitch. Good agreement between calculated and measured data was obtained for some of the relative power distribution experiments for MOX single-region cores and MOX/UO2 multiregion cores; however, for others the agreement was less satisfactory. No significant difference in the results for relative power with the two libraries was observed.