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August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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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.
Jonathan Naish, Frances Fox, Zamir Ghani, Michael Loughlin, Lee Packer, Andrew Turner
Nuclear Technology | Volume 192 | Number 3 | December 2015 | Pages 299-307
Technical Paper | Accelerators | doi.org/10.13182/NT14-132
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Applied Radiation Physics Group at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, United Kingdom, has developed and applied state-of-the-art radiation mapping methods and tools. The tools enable complex shielding calculations in and around fusion devices, both during and after plasma operations, to inform on associated radiation fields for operational, maintenance, and remote handling scenarios, for example. Here, we present a description and application of those tools to produce radiation maps to support (a) the Joint European Torus (JET) operational safety case for a new D-T campaign that is foreseen for 2020, with neutron emission rates in excess of 1018 n/s and a total neutron yield up to 1.7 × 1021 n, and (b) the ITER device.
Three tools are presented in this paper: An automated global variance reduction tool applied to the JET facility; a portable bounding surface source referred to as a mesh source, which has been applied to activated materials; and a smeared source routine, which enables the calculation of integral fields associated with moving sources. These tools are demonstrated, in combination, to produce the integrated three-dimensional dose map of an activated divertor component being transported through a path within the ITER facility.