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.
Wei-Nian Su, Shih-Jen Wang, I-Ming Huang, Show-Chyuan Chiang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 155 | Number 3 | September 2006 | Pages 253-264
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3760
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Containment flooding is an important strategy for severe accident management of a conventional boiling water reactor (BWR) system. The execution of containment flooding requires information about the water level in the primary containment. However, there is no instrument to measure the drywell water level for most Mark-III systems. Furthermore, because of the design feature of the Mark-III containment, the water level in the containment does not necessarily guarantee that there is an equivalent water level in the drywell. Therefore, the development of a drywell water level computational aid becomes very useful. The purpose of this work is to develop and validate the drywell water level computational aid and to investigate the implementation of the proposed computational aid on the containment flooding strategy of a Mark-III system. The Kuosheng nuclear power plant (NPP) is a typical BWR-6 NPP with Mark-III containment, and the Severe Accident Management Guideline (SAMG) of the Kuosheng NPP has been developed based on the BWR Owners' Group Emergency Procedure Guidelines and Severe Accident Guidelines, Revision 2. Therefore, the Kuosheng NPP is selected as the plant for study, and the MAAP4 code is chosen as the tool for analysis.