ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2026
Nuclear Technology
August 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Ola Thomson, Ninos S. Garis,†, Imre Pázsit
Nuclear Technology | Volume 120 | Number 1 | October 1997 | Pages 71-80
Technical Paper | Reactor Operation | doi.org/10.13182/NT97-A35432
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Detecting the vibration and impacting of neutron detectors in boiling water reactor cores is usually attempted from the detector signals. Two such indicators used or suggested earlier are the widening of the vibration peak in the detector noise auto-power spectral density and the deviation from Gaussian ( = “distortion”) of the signal amplitude probability distribution (APD). Quantification of both methods is hindered by the presence of a strong, Gaussian background; thus, it was thought that band-pass filtering around the vibration peak would improve the performance of the methods. This suggestion has been investigated. It turns out that filtering reduces the background, but it also distorts the vibration component of the signal. For good performance, this latter effect must be compensated for. Such methods are elaborated and applied to both peak widening and APD distortion techniques. It was found that application of such techniques makes the kurtosis and the decay ratio associated with the signal suitable to be used as quantitative indicators of impacting. The methods elaborated were also checked by numerical simulations and real measurements with positive results.