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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Remembering ANS member Gil Brown
Brown
The nuclear community is mourning the loss of Gilbert Brown, who passed away on July 11 at the age of 77 following a battle with cancer.
Brown, an American Nuclear Society Fellow and an ANS member for nearly 50 years, joined the faculty at Lowell Technological Institute—now the University of Massachusetts–Lowell—in 1973 and remained there for the rest of his career. He eventually became director of the UMass Lowell nuclear engineering program. After his retirement, he remained an emeritus professor at the university.
Sukesh Aghara, chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization, noted in an email to NEDHO members and others that “Gil was a relentless advocate for nuclear energy and a deeply respected member of our professional community. He was also a kind and generous friend—and one of the reasons I ended up at UMass Lowell. He served the university with great dedication. . . . Within NEDHO, Gil was a steady presence and served for many years as our treasurer. His contributions to nuclear engineering education and to this community will be dearly missed.”
Deanna Jing Zhang, Dawnmathews Kalathiveettil (NRC)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1114-1121
Modern digital instrumentation and controls (I&C) systems incorporate many design features that provide safety and reliability benefits to plant operations. However, design decisions relating to I&C system architecture and implementation of these design features may present challenges to demonstrating safety and compliance to regulatory requirements. There can be significant safety and regulatory impacts from design decisions related the I&C platform used, interfaces among redundant safety divisions and between safety and non-safety systems, deterministic behavior, and diversity strategies. These design decisions may influence the I&C system architecture, result in different hazards and hazard controls (e.g., measures for prevention or mitigation), and affect design complexity, all of which may necessitate corresponding levels of evidence (i.e., level of detail, analysis, testing, operating experience, etc.) to demonstrate that the I&C design provides reasonable assurance of safety and compliance with applicable regulatory requirements in an efficient and effective manner. This paper discusses some of the key design decisions for the APR1400 I&C system and architecture and their impact on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff’s design certification application licensing review. For example, this paper discusses benefits and challenges associated with the I&C platform used for the safety-related I&C system. This paper also explores the challenges associated with non-safety to safety communications and the design constraints chosen that addressed hazards of concern associated with this communication and compliance with the independence design principle and regulatory requirement. In addition, this paper provides examples of information necessary to support the safety and regulatory compliance demonstration. Lastly, this paper provides additional insight on lessons learned during the regulatory process for the APR1400 I&C system design certification application review.
