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Latest News
INL researchers use LEDs to shed light on next-gen reactors
At Idaho National Laboratory, researchers have built a bridge between computer models and the lab’s Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) microreactor.
Tony Crawford, an INL researcher and MARVEL’s reactivity control system lead, designed a phone booth–sized surrogate nuclear reactor called ViBRANT, or Visual Benign Reactor as Analog for Nuclear Testing, which uses light instead of neutrons to show a “nuclear” reaction.
Taejin Kim, Donghan Yoo, Jongin Yang, Seoryong Koo, KyungTae Lim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 8 | August 2024 | Pages 1304-1318
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2295147
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As small modular reactors are gaining attention as the future of nuclear energy, it has become increasingly imperative to minimize the number of required operators in order to improve economic competitiveness. Although the tasks of operators have changed and their workloads have been relatively reduced as digital technologies have been applied to advanced main control rooms (MCRs), no change in the number of operators has been made when compared to conventional MCRs in the Republic of Korea. As a solution, the introduction of natural language processing (NLP) technology to replace certain operator tasks in advanced MCRs can be a valuable means of reducing MCR staff. In this paper, we suggest a novel communication framework utilizing NLP technology to minimize the number of operators in advanced MCRs. To do this, we analyze operator tasks in advanced MCRs and select those that can be replaced by NLP technology. We then develop a prototype NLP-based system and analyze the process and characteristics of the suggested communication framework.