Transitioning Nuclear Power Plant Main Control Room From Paper Based Procedures to Computer Based Procedures

Abstract

The United States (U.S.) has 99 operating Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). The majority of these were designed and commissioned in the 1970s and 1980s. Plants are modernizing their control systems and main control rooms to be able to continue operating past their original 40-year license agreements. U.S. NPP main control rooms are migrating towards hybrid controls with both digital and analog systems. Digital upgrades, while costly, provide improved reliability, reduced maintenance cost, and the potential for fewer unplanned outages and fewer human errors. U.S. utilities have been slow to embrace computerized procedure system (CBP) research, even though CBPs demonstrate clear operational and human factors benefits. Most of the CBP research has been oriented to new reactor designs or full digital control rooms and is not applicable to the piecemeal modernization approach favored by U.S. plants. Research is needed to examine how CBPs impact operations in hybrid control rooms, and how current paper based procedures can be efficiently migrated to computerized platforms. Work is underway to develop tools and perform the obligatory research needed to design and validate CBPs for modernized U.S. nuclear control rooms.

Comparative evaluation of augmented reality-based assistance for procedural tasks: a simulated control room study

“…Introducing CBPs in such plants require a massive overhaul of displays, sensors and other components. Most plants cannot afford the shutdown required for such an extensive overhaul since plants can lose over a million dollars in revenue from just a single day of outage (R. L. Boring, Agarwal, Joe, & Persensky, 2012;Lew, Boring, & Ulrich, 2018). The current process of modernization usually occurs at a very slow pace with one or two components being digitized resulting in control rooms consisting of both analogue and digital systems that function collectively (Lew, Ulrich, & Boring, 2017).…”

Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program: Use of Time Distributions to Predict Operator Procedure Performance in Dynamic Human Reliability Analysis

“…Much has been written about control room upgrades and the transition from analog to digital systems (Boring, et al, 2019), but relatively little research has specifically focused on the use of procedures with these new systems. An exception is the case of computer-based procedures, where procedures represent one of the technological systems being introduced into the modernized control room (Lew, et al, 2018). Despite minimal research having specifically been conducted on the application of procedures amid changing concepts of operations, the procedures used to operate any plant system are an important part of the plant's overall HMI.…”

A Comparison of Three Types of Computer-Based Procedures: An Experiment Using the Rancor Microworld Simulator

“…While a great deal of research by human factors scientists has investigated CBPs in terms of hybrid control room needs (Le Blanc et al, 2015), use in field activities (Le Blanc et al, 2012; Oxstrand & Le Blanc, 2018), and frameworks for implementation (Lew et al, 2018), a gap remains in our knowledge as to how these different procedure types impact usability and user impressions. Thus, the current experiment examined these outcomes using the Rancor Microworld Simulator (Ulrich et al, 2017).…”