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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.
Floyd E. Dunn
Nuclear Technology | Volume 114 | Number 2 | May 1996 | Pages 147-157
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35245
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As part of a program to obtain realistic, as opposed to excessively conservative, analysis of reactor transients, a multiple-pin treatment for the analysis of intrasubassembly thermal hydraulics has been included in the SASSYS-1 liquid-metal reactor systems analysis code. This new treatment has made possible a whole new level of verification for the code. The code can now predict the steady-state and transient responses of individual thermocouples within instrumented subassemblies in a reactor rather than just predicting average temperatures for a subassembly. Very good agreement has been achieved between code predictions and the experimental measurements of steady-state and transient temperatures and flow rates in the shutdown heat removal tests in the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-Il). Detailed multiple-pin calculations for blanket subassemblies in the EBR-II demonstrate that the actual steady-state and transient peak temperatures in these subassemblies are significantly lower than those that would be calculated by simpler models.