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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.
Alessandro Dodaro, Franco Vittorio Frazzoli, Romolo Remetti
Nuclear Technology | Volume 144 | Number 1 | October 2003 | Pages 130-140
Technical Paper | Radiation Measurements and Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3433
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The "angular scanning" method allows both localization of hot spot(s) and the evaluation of the corresponding activity. Taking into account the experimental setup parameters (e.g., drum geometry, drum-detector distance, collimator geometry, etc.), the peak count rate versus the angular displacement is modeled as a theoretical analytical function of three independent variables (unknowns) for each hot spot: the two coordinates of the hot-spot center of mass and the corresponding activity value. Solutions for unknowns are obtained from equating, for each angular displacement, the experimental count rate to the corresponding theoretical one. Such a procedure has been applied to the SRWGA gamma scanner of the Casaccia Research Center utilizing a set of Waste Packages Reference Standards (with different matrices) where the gamma sources in different radial-azimuthal positions can be located.