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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.
Chan Eok Park, Jong Ho Choi, Gyu Cheon Lee, Sang Yong Lee
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 1 | January-February 2019 | Pages 77-93
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1501990
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The system thermal-hydraulic code SPACE adopts a multidimensional two-fluid, three-field model to simulate two-phase-flow phenomena encountered during various anticipated transients and postulated accidents of pressurized water reactors. The applicable mesh systems include structured/staggered and unstructured/collocated ones. The staggered mesh system is based on the orthogonal hexahedral shape of cells and their surrounding faces, but it is generalized to describe not only multidimensional Cartesian meshes but also cylindrical meshes and one-dimensional pipe flow networks. The unstructured/collocated mesh system is used to represent more complex geometry using hexahedron, tetrahedron, pyramid, or prism shapes of cells. The structured/staggered mesh system hydraulic solver and the unstructured/collocated mesh system hydraulic solver are merged into a unified version of SPACE so that those hydraulic solvers can analyze simultaneously a complicated system comprising several structured and unstructured mesh blocks. In this paper, the governing equations, mesh systems, and numerical formulations for SPACE are introduced, and the application results are presented for several conceptual problems including the connection of heterogeneous mesh blocks.