Development of a Technical Basis and Guidance for Advanced SMR Function Allocation

Abstract

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYT his report presents the results from three key activities for FY2013 that are helping to determine the definition of new concepts of operations for advanced Small Modular Reactors (Adv SMR): a) the development of a framework for the analysis of the functional, environmental, and structural attributes of Adv SM Rs, b) the effect that new technologies and operational concepts would have on the way functions are allocated to humans or machines or combinations of the two, and c) the relationship between new concepts of operations, new function allocations, and human performance requirements.A previous report described some of the principles involved in how Adv SM Rs will use advanced digital instrumentation and control systems, and make greater use of automation. T hese advances not only pose technical and operational challenges, but will undo ubtedly have an effect on the operating and maintenance cost of new plants. It is generally assumed that automation would be the most likely way to reduce the impact of labor on operating and maintenance cost. Howe ver, the effect of automation and other advanced technology on staffing requirements and safety standards has raised many questions and very little research has been conducted to date.For example, the impact of AdvSMR designs on operational and regulatory considerations, such as workload, situation awareness, h uman reliability, staffing levels, and the appropriate allocation of functions between the crew and various plant systems that are likely to be highly automated is largely uncertain and will remain uncertain until empirical research data become available to support the development of sound technical bases. Experience with Adv SM Rs o utside of the US Navy is limited to a very few predecessor plants. In addition, existing human factors and systems engineering design standards are not current in terms of human interaction basics for automated sy stems, and there is a lack of good functional allocation and staffing models that take into account static or dynamic allocation.Given these uncertainties and other issues, it is necessary to develop new Concepts of Operations models as well as new mo dels of function allocation and human performance requirements. T his report explains the relationship between these three requirements and how old paradigm s and methodologies are no longer suitable for the analysis of evolving concepts. The report further explains how the development of new models and guidance for Concepts of Operations need to adopt a state-of-the-art approach such as Work Domain Analysis (WDA). T he primary goal of this methodology is to identify and evaluate specific human factors challenges related to non -traditional concepts of operations, and the associated changes in the allocation of functions to human and system agents. This includes developing a framework for the analysis of Adv SM R functions, structures and systems using the WDA methodology, as well as the development of functional allocation principles as one of the prima...

Guidelines for Implementation of an Advanced Outage Control Center to Improve Outage Coordination, Problem Resolution, and Outage Risk Management

“…The integration of human factors and ergonomics into engineering processes is done to align the concerns of human-centered design with the focus of the engineering activities, and is considered to be best practice in many industries and government agencies, including automotive companies, shipping companies, NASA, the UK Health and Safety Executive, the aviation industry, and the nuclear industry (Hugo, 2013;Hugo, Gertman, Joe, Medema, Whaley, & Farris, 2013).…”

“…ISO11064-1:2000 provides an overview method and references to other allocation methods in Annex B of the same part. Extensive literature is available on function analysis and allocation; see Hugo et al (2013) and Hugo et al (2012) for overviews of the function allocation research and approaches.…”

A Framework for Human Performance Criteria for Advanced Reactor Operational Concepts

“…Note that Operational Concepts are mentioned throughout this report, but a full discussion of this topic is outside the scope since it has already been addressed in previous milestone reports (see Hugo et al 2013 [6]).…”

“…The following table has been compiled from various sources to highlight characteristics that are likely to have an impact on operational concepts as well as human performance (see references [4], [5] and [6]). No operator action required to activate containment systems to reduce steam pressure or to remove radioiodine from containment.…”

“…Also, assisting crew identification of false positives will reduce cognitive workload. Emergent problems (6) are associated with complex emergency conditions, as has often been observed during the conduct of long-term outage work. AdvNPP operational concepts for simplification of the sheer number of systems to which the crew must attend and maintain may simplify outage work, but the complexity presented by the number of reactor modules simultaneously in service will produce relatively high levels of workload that can be reduced by real-time aiding and diagnostic evaluation of emerging conditions.…”