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We would like to thank our industry partners who attended this workshop. Without their participation, the workshop would have not been possible. To this end, we are particularly grateful for the effort and support Dustin Greenwood of NuScale, Patrick Kopfle of Dominion Energy, Jim Hill of Xcel Energy, and Asgeir Drøivoldsmo of the Institute for Energy Technology provided in developing presentations to share at the workshop. Indeed, these presentations were absolutely integral to the engagement and success of the workshop.

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Nuclear power has a crucial role in providing safe, reliable, and economical carbon-free electricity for today and the future. For continued operation, many of the existing United States nuclear power plants will begin the subsequent license renewal process for extending their operating license periods. As plants extend their expected operating lifetimes, there is a significant opportunity to modernize. These plants have a much stronger business case with these extended mission periods to modernize and significantly enhance their economic viability in current and future energy markets by implementing digital technologies that support innovation, efficiency gains, and business-model transformation.Ensuring continued safety and reliability is crucial. Transformative digital technologies-including automation-that fundamentally change the concept of operation for the nuclear power plant operating models requires a critical focus on the human-technology integration element. Further, the nuclear industry has historically been reluctant to modernize due to a risk-adverse culture and lack of clarity for a transformative new-state vision. Common barriers include the perceived value and return on investment of digital technology; the perceived risk associated with licensing, regulatory, and cybersecurity; and insufficient guidance for performing digital modifications to power generation systems.This work presents a methodology to address these barriers and support the industry in adopting advanced automation and digital technology through developing a transformative vision and implementation strategy that will address the human-technology integration element. This research leverages previous Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program and industry results. It draws specifically on previous LWRS Program research in the areas of advanced alarm systems, computer-based procedures, model-informed decision support, and advanced human-system interface displays (e.g., overviews and task-based). The modernization methodology can be used to guide transformative thinking when integrating a set of vendor-specific capabilities to support a new concept of operations and a utility's end-state vision.The results of this research are organized into six major sections: − Section 1 introduces the need for supporting large-scale digital modifications that will renew the technology base for extended operating life beyond 60 years.− Section 2 describes the challenges that the nuclear industry is enduring with modernizing.− Section 3 summarizes the primary standards and guidance.− Section 4 presents earlier work from the LWRS Program regarding the development of a transformative conceptual design for an advanced control room of a hybrid plants.− Section 5 presents a methodology that is designed to address the challenges in the industry today in achieving a transformative newstate vision and concept of operations.

An important element of human factors engineering (HFE) pertains to measurement and evaluation (M&E). The role of HFE-M&E should be integrated throughout the entire control room modernization (CRM) process and be used for human-system performance evaluation and diagnostic purposes with resolving potential human engineering deficiencies (HEDs) and other human machine interface (HMI) design issues. NUREG-0711 describes how HFE in CRM should employ a hierarchical set of measures, particularly during integrated system validation (ISV), including plant performance, personnel task performance, situation awareness, cognitive workload, and anthropometric/ physiological factors. Historically, subjective measures have been primarily used since they are easier to collect and do not require specialized equipment. However, there are pitfalls with relying solely on subjective measures in M&E such that negatively impact reliability, sensitivity, and objectivity. As part of comprehensively capturing a diverse set of measures that strengthen findings and inferences made of the benefits from emerging technologies like advanced displays, this paper discusses the value of using eye tracking as an objective method that can be used in M&E. A brief description of eye tracking technology and relevant eye tracking measures is provided. Additionally, technical considerations and the unique challenges with using eye tracking in full-scaled simulations are addressed. Finally, this paper shares preliminary findings regarding the use of a wearable eye tracking system in a full-scale simulator study. These findings should help guide future full-scale simulator studies using eye tracking as a methodology to evaluate human-system performance.