The effects of stress on nuclear power plant operational decision making and training approaches to reduce stress effects

After Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, severe accident is getting more and more concerns all over the world. In order to mitigate severe accident and improve the safety of nuclear power plant, two different strategies are applied in different plants. One is in-vessel melt retention strategy, and the other is ex-vessel melt retention strategy. Tianwan nuclear power plant is an improved Gen II nuclear power plant and in-vessel melt retention strategy is adopted in the plant. In order to achieve this strategy, cavity injection system is designed for the plant. Probabilistic Safety Analysis is the most commonly used quantitative risk assessment tool for decision-making in selecting the optimal design among alternative options. For this plant, in order to optimize the design of cavity injection system, improve the safety level of nuclear power plant, and meanwhile, improve the engineering implementation and economization, Level 2 PSA was used for this decision-making process. In this paper, the Level 2 PSA for this plant and the application for the design of cavity injection system are introduced.

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Technical Workforce Education and Training Program at Abu Dhabi Polytechnic: Integration of Academia and Industry Requirements

Volume 8: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); Nuclear Education and Public Acceptance ◽

10.1115/icone26-82094 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Anthony Hechanova

Keyword(s):

Power Plant ◽

Nuclear Power Plant ◽

Training Program ◽

Nuclear Power ◽

Nuclear Energy ◽

Education And Training ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Abu Dhabi ◽

Pressurized Water ◽

And Training

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a developing affluent nation. The leaders of the UAE announced the pursuit of peaceful nuclear power in 2008 and by the end of the following year established its Nuclear Energy Program Implementing Organization (the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC)), Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), and ordered four APR-1400 pressurized water reactors from the Korean Electric Power Company (KEPCO). Nuclear Engineering programs were initiated soon afterwards at Khalifa University for graduate students and the University of Sharjah for undergraduate students. The technical workforce including nuclear power plant local operators and chemistry and radiation protection personnel was established by ENEC and the Institute of Applied Technology as an inaugural program of Abu Dhabi Polytechnic (AD Poly) in 2011. This paper describes the development of the dual education and training program at AD Poly, the experience of the initial cohorts who conducted their training at the APR-1400 units at the Shin Kori Nuclear Power Plant in Korea, and the current program between the AD Poly Abu Dhabi campus and the new Barakah Nuclear Power Plant based on lessons learned from the earlier years.

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Evaluating Nuclear Control Room Improvements Through Analysis of Critical Operator Decisions

Proceedings of the Human Factors Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/107118138102500125 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 100-104 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Richard W. Pew ◽

Duncan C. Miller ◽

Carl E. Feehrer

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Power Plant ◽

Nuclear Power Plant ◽

Nuclear Power ◽

Control Room ◽

Time Stress ◽

Nuclear Control ◽

Potential Impact

Decision making by nuclear power plant operators was studied in the context of four recent “off-normal” incidents, in order to assess the potential impact of various proposed control room improvements. A model of operator decision making was applied to critical operator decisions during each event in order to determine how each proposed improvement could help prevent or resolve decision-making errors. The results indicated that time stress on the crew played an appreciable role in the performance failures identified, and that a combination of improvements will be necessary to address this problem.

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