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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.
Chikara Konno, Satoshi Sato, Kentaro Ochiai, Masayuki Wada, Seiki Ohnishi, Kosuke Takakura, Hiromasa Iida
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 743-746
Heavy Ion Transport | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (PART 3) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9299
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The three-dimensional Sn code Attila of Transpire, Inc., can use computer-aided-design data as direct geometrical input and can deal with assemblies of complicated geometry without much effort. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) organization plans to adopt this code as one of the standard codes for nuclear analyses. However, validation of calculations with this code has not been carried out in detail so far. Thus, we validate this code through analyses of some bulk experiments and streaming experiments with deuterium-tritium neutrons at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency Fusion Neutronics Source. Analyses with the Sn code system DOORS and Monte Carlo code MCNP4C were also carried out for comparison. The agreement between the Attila and DOORS calculations is very good for the bulk experiments. For the streaming experiments Attila requires special treatment (biased angular quadrature sets or last collided source calculation) as well as DOORS in order to obtain similar results as those with MCNP, though Attila consumes much more time than DOORS.