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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.
Imane Khalil, Quinn Pratt
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 7 | July 2019 | Pages 987-991
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1554026
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A MATLAB tool that combines computational fluid dynamics with uncertainty quantification (UQ) applied to a two-dimensional FLUENT computational model to predict the heat transfer and the maximum temperature inside a spent fuel assembly is presented in this technical note. The tool is used to establish a connection between MATLAB and ANSYS-FLUENT for the purpose of UQ using the Sandia National Laboratory’s UQ Toolkit. This tool allows users to adapt the UQ methodology to existing ANSYS-FLUENT models in order to automate the quadrature-based simulation process. The novelty of the tool presented in this technical note is its ability to generate results covering a continuous range of input parameters by using polynomial chaos expansions for the representation of random variables and the propagation of uncertainty in computational models.