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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.
Fu-Long Chen, Shih-Hai Li, Ge-Ping Yu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 95 | Number 1 | July 1991 | Pages 54-63
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34567
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For the final disposal of high-level waste (HLW), the possibility of a repository sited below the fresh/saline groundwater interface within islet rock formations is analyzed. Because of their relatively stable tectonics, the offshore islets of some countries (such as those of Taiwan) are worthy. of being considered as potential repository sites. Before the emplacement of radwastes in such a repository, however, the mass exchange across the fresh/saline groundwater interface must be limited and the horizontal movement of advective saline ground-water must be extremely low. Theoretical equations for the location and shape of the interface are derived. When radwastes are buried in rock formations, the temperature effect of the decay heat could cause buoyant convection flow of saline groundwater upward across the groundwater interface. This could carry released radionuclides across the groundwater interface to upper formation layers where fresh groundwater flows. The radionuclides could then be carried by the fresh groundwater to the sea. Although basic HLW repository designs should eliminate the significance of this temperature effect, it is incorporated into this preliminary analysis for the purpose of conservative estimations. Radionuclide transport behavior in an islet site is compared to that in an inland site in which a repository would be built in partially saturated fractured media. The total effects of radionuclide transport for the islet site is similar to that for the inland site. Although the lack of information limits more detailed, quantitative predictions, the possibility of islet disposal sites for HLW is worthy of notice, and more research efforts toward investigation of islet sites are warranted.