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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.
Jeffrey W. Dickinson, Andrew C. Klein
Nuclear Technology | Volume 114 | Number 2 | May 1996 | Pages 205-223
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35250
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Modeling efforts are undertaken to perform coupled thermal-hydraulic and thermionic analysis for both single-cell and multicell thermionic fuel elements (TFE). The analysis—and the resulting MCTFE computer code (multicell thermionic fuel element) — is a steady-state finite volume model specifically designed to analyze cylindrical TFEs. It employs an iterative successive overrelaxation solution technique to solve for the temperatures throughout the TFE and a coupled thermionic routine to determine the total TFE performance. The calculated results include temperature distributions in all regions of the TFE, axial interelectrode voltages and current densities, and total TFE electrical output parameters including power, current, and voltage. MCTFE-generated results compare experimental data from the single-cell Topaz-II-type TFE and multicell data from the General Atomics 3H5 TFE to benchmark the accuracy of the code methods.