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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.
Motoo Fumizawa, Akiyuki Kameda, Takashi Nakagawa, Wei Wu, Hidekazu Yoshikawa
Nuclear Technology | Volume 141 | Number 1 | January 2003 | Pages 78-87
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technologies | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3352
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Development of simulation-based evaluation and analysis support system for man-machine interface design (SEAMAID) has been conducted in the Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation to simulate the behavior of a few operators and the human-machine interface (HMI) in a commercialized pressurized water reactor plant. The workload is one of the key factors with respect to reducing the human error in the operation of nuclear power plants. In order to produce a high-quality design of HMI, the evaluation method was developed to simulate and analyze the operator's workload. Our method was adopted from the cognition model proposed by Reason. The workload such as the length of the visual point movement and the moving length of the operators was visualized in a monitor image during the simulation, and then recorded as a movie-file. As a consequence, the validation of SEAMAID was clarified.