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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.
John Avis, Paul Suckling, Nicola Calder, Robert Walsh, Paul Humphreys, Fraser King
Nuclear Technology | Volume 187 | Number 2 | August 2014 | Pages 175-187
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-83
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Deep geologic disposal of radioactive waste is being planned in a number of international programs. Within a deep geologic repository (DGR), gases can be generated by corrosion of metals and degradation of organics. Reactions, and thus gas generation rates, are dependent upon pressures, temperature, and the availability of water or water vapor within the repository. Furthermore, many reactions consume water. Consumption rates and repository state are not known a priori and are in general coupled processes. A numeric model of coupled gas generation and transport has been developed and implemented in the T2GGM code. T2GGM consists of a gas generation model (GGM), which calculates rates of gas generation and water consumption within the DGR due to corrosion and microbial degradation of the waste packages, integrated with the widely used two-phase-flow code TOUGH2, which models the subsequent two-phase transport of the water and gas through the repository and into the DGR shafts and geosphere. T2GGM has been applied to assess gas transport from a proposed low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste DGR and to study the impact of container corrosion in a hypothetical used fuel DGR.