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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.
Almir Fernandes, Sudarshan K. Loyalka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 113 | Number 2 | February 1996 | Pages 155-166
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35185
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The CONTAIN code is an integrated code for predicting the containment behavior (chemical, physical, and radiological) in a severe accident. It models the thermal hydraulics as well as the aerosol and fission products behavior inside the containment. There are four aerosol deposition mechanisms modeled in the code: settling, diffusion to surfaces, thermophoresis, and diffusiophoresis. In general, the settling and diffusion are the most important. A comparison of the CONTAIN deposition rate expression with a general and more accurate rate expression, however, shows that for most geometries, the code expression overestimates the deposition of small particles, mainly because of an inadequate assumption regarding the dependence of the thickness of the boundary layer on particle size. For some specific geometries, the expression can also overestimate deposition of large particles. The general and more accurate expression is implemented in the CONTAIN code for the cubic and spherical geometries for a test problem. The original and the modified versions of the CONTAIN code are found to yield different results for the suspended aerosol mass. The differences depend on other aerosol processes such as coagulation and also on geometry.