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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 8–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Energy Secretary to speak at the 2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
In less than two weeks, the American Nuclear Society’s second annual conference of the year, the 2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo, will come to Washington, D.C.
Today, ANS is announcing that Energy Secretary Chris Wright will be joining the list of nuclear leaders slated to speak at the conference.
Click here to register for the meeting, which will take place November 9–12 in Washington, D.C., at the Washington Hilton. Be sure to do so before November 7 to take advantage of priority pricing.
Roger Lew (Univ of Idaho), Ronald L. Boring, Thomas A. Ulrich (INL)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 932-940
Research on computer-based procedure (CBP) systems has found operational advantages over paper-based procedures (PBPs) including reduced memory workload, increased automation, and fewer operator errors. A Nuclear Regulatory Commision (NRC) study (1995) found that procedure related issues have been implicated in 69% of reported events for nuclear power plants (NPPs). Despite the associated risk with existing PBPs, utilities are hesitant to be first adopters and research is needed to validate systems in the context of modernized but largely analog Generation II main control rooms. Existing implementations of CBP systems have started from the ground up and where able to have tailored operations to support CBP systems. For existing plants this is a time-consuming, expensive, and potentially risky proposition, which represents a substantial shift current operational practices. For example, plants have existing protocols for authoring and maintaining procedures that serve as administrative controls over processes. Therefore, procedures serve organizational and administrative purposes unrelated to the actual operator control of the plant. A replacement computerized system must be able to replace existing functionality and dovetail with these organizational processes. This document describes the functional characteristics and technical specification for a Computerized Procedure Engine (CPE) designed to meet the needs of modernized United States (US) NPPs. The CPE is designed with flexibility in mind to satisfy a variety of functional and research objectives.