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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.
Seong-Su Jeon, Soon-Joon Hong, Hyoung-Kyu Cho, Goon-Cherl Park
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 2 | November 2016 | Pages 303-318
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-22
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A horizontal U-shaped heat exchanger (HX) submerged in a pool is under development as a piece of key equipment for a passive safety system in a nuclear power plant (NPP). For the successful design of the HX and the safety analysis of the NPP, reliable prediction of the heat transfer performance of the HX is important. At present, the design and the safety analysis of the passive safety systems are performed mainly using best-estimate thermal-hydraulic analysis codes such as RELAP5 and MARS. However, those codes do not have suitable models for both condensation heat transfer in the horizontal tube and natural convective and nucleate boiling heat transfer on the horizontal tube, both of which ultimately determine the heat transfer performance of the HX. This study developed a heat transfer model package for the horizontal U-shaped HX submerged in a pool by improving the horizontal in-tube condensation model and developing the out-tube natural convective and nucleate boiling model. From the validation results, the proposed model provides an improved prediction of HX performance (condensation, natural convection and nucleate boiling, and heat removal rate of the HX) compared to the default model in MARS.