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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.
Antti Timperi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 204 | Number 1 | October 2018 | Pages 25-40
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1461518
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Large-eddy simulations (LESs) for two different T-junctions are performed for the prediction of thermal mixing loads on piping. In particular, the effects of wall treatment and mesh on temperature and wall heat flux fluctuations are studied. Wall-resolved LES shows good agreement with an experiment having adiabatic walls, but using wall functions shows deviations in root-mean-squared (RMS) temperatures and cross-stream mean velocities. The simulations show increases in peak RMS temperatures with local mesh refinement, and hence, too-low peak values are obtained with wall functions. The highest temperature fluctuations occur locally near the T-junction requiring a dense mesh. Wall functions are unable to capture high wall heat fluxes at a sharp corner, but otherwise, the maximum RMS value is close to a wall-resolved LES. For a T-junction having a round corner, higher RMS heat flux is obtained with wall functions compared to a wall-resolved case. Wall functions show lower instantaneous heat fluxes than wall-resolved LES, but the wall functions nonetheless result in higher pipe wall temperature fluctuations due to lower frequency content.