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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.
Siegfried Jacobi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 91 | Number 2 | August 1990 | Pages 146-153
Technical Paper | Safety of Next Generation Power Reactor / Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34424
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Possible plutonium contamination of the primary loop and potential cooling disturbances, both due to cladding breaches, result in two areas that need to be considered: (a) the behavior of defective fuel subassemblies transferred to in-vessel storage and (b) the occurrence of new defects in the cladding tubes at the end of service life. A response to the resulting requirement of cladding tube monitoring during in-vessel storage is given, and the following solution is proposed: If fuel subassemblies are stored in in-vessel drums, the defect can be temporarily exposed by rotating the drum and exposing the subassemblies to different levels of residual neutron radiation intensity. Fission products escaping during this process are measured by delayed neutron monitors, as applied in normal operation.