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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.
Jin-Young Cho, Jae-Seung Song, Chung-Chan Lee, Sung-Quun Zee, Jae-Il Lee, Kil-Sup Um
Nuclear Technology | Volume 161 | Number 1 | January 2008 | Pages 57-68
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A3913
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A lumped-refined multichannel analysis scheme is developed for a high-fidelity thermal-hydraulic (T-H) calculation through neutronics code coupling and applied to a control element assembly (CEA) ejection accident of the Ulchin Unit 3 nuclear power plant to quantify the conservatism of the conventional scheme. The high-fidelity core minimum departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) ratio calculation is realized by coupling more than two TORC dynamic link libraries (DLLs) under the control of the neutronics code, one for the lumped multichannel calculation and the others for the refined subchannel calculations. Realistic radial boundary conditions are supplied from the lumped multichannel calculation to the refined TORC DLL through the neutronics code. The CEA ejection accident problem is simulated from the DNB limiting conditions for operation condition, which is searched by adjusting the core radial peaking factor at a 30% axial offset power shape. The results indicate that the simplified hot-channel model contains ~15 and 5% conservatism in the core minimum DNB ratio and in the number of failed fuel rods, respectively, and reveals that those conservatisms are mainly due to the unrealistic isolated boundary condition. Therefore, it is concluded that the developed scheme can be effectively used to quantify the conservatism of a conventional DNB evaluation scheme.