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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.
Nathan Siu, Ali Mosleh
Nuclear Technology | Volume 84 | Number 3 | March 1989 | Pages 265-281
Technical Paper | Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Risk Management / Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34210
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Uncertainties in the estimation of parameters for common-cause failure models arise not only because of the small number of common-cause failure events but also because recorded events may not be relevant to the analysis of a particular plant. The data base for a plant-specific analysis may therefore be uncertain. A Bayesian methodology for treating data base uncertainties in the estimation of common-cause failure model parameters is developed and applied to a three-pump auxiliary feedwater system. Sensitivity analyses show that the results are not strongly sensitive to assumptions concerning prior distribution type and shape, but do depend somewhat on the degree of state-of-knowledge dependence between uncertain events. These analyses also show that ignoring the uncertainties in the data can lead to significant estimation errors. Finally, an approximate methodology for treating uncertain data is examined; this method provides reasonable estimates of the mean values of the common-cause failure model parameters, but underpredicts the uncertainty in these parameters.