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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.
Hungyuan B. Liu, Francis J. Patti
Nuclear Technology | Volume 116 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 373-377
Technical Note | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35292
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Recent changes are updated for the proposed modification to use a fission plate converter and a matching filter/moderator assembly in a newly designed beam shutter to enhance the epithermal neutron beam for patient irradiations during boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) at the Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Engineering design of the new beam shutter system has been completed, and design review is under way. With this upgrade, the epithermal neutron flux could be increased up to seven times higher than the present beam, and the fast-neutron dose per epithermal neutron fluence could be reduced to near half. Such an enhanced epithermal neutron beam would increase the effectiveness of clinical BNCT by allowing increased doses to the tumor with similar or lesser doses to normal tissues.