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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 Woo Kang, Jae-Hwan Yang, Man-Sung Yim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 10 | October 2020 | Pages 1593-1606
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1713680
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of using bismuth-embedded SBA-15 (Bi-SBA-15) as gaseous iodine filtration material for applications at higher temperatures, such as environmental release severe accident mitigation, while reducing the cost of production and maintaining its iodine adsorption capacity. It was shown that Bi-SBA-15 can be produced in a much more economically feasible way by (1) increasing the amount of the chemical reagents for SBA-15 synthesis, (2) decreasing the amount of other chemicals required to facilitate the chemical reactions, and (3) reducing the synthesis time, all while maintaining the iodine adsorption capability. Through both closed and open iodine adsorption experiments, it was shown that Bi-SBA-15 has a much higher adsorption capacity than silver-exchanged zeolites at 423°K (150°C) but decreases sharply as the temperature increases, resulting in about half of the iodine adsorption capacity of AgX at 523 K (250°C). Assuming that the commercialized cost of Bi-SBA-15 could be less than half of silver-exchanged zeolites, Bi-SBA-15 may be able to replace silver-exchanged zeolites at higher-temperature applications but only if the temperature of the gaseous iodine is less than 423 K (150°C) or if there is a presystem such as a pool scrubber to reduce the temperature of the gaseous iodine reaching the iodine filtration system. If Bi-SBA-15 can be produced much less expensively at a small fraction of cost compared with silver-exchanged zeolites, it may even be used at a temperature up to 523 K (250°C) with high enough iodine capture efficiency by simply increasing the mass of Bi-SBA-15 to more than double the mass of the required silver-exchanged zeolites.