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The human factor in licensing and operating the next generation of nuclear plants
As human factors specialists working at the intersection of human performance and nuclear operations, we are witnessing one of the nuclear sector’s most significant transitions in decades. The emergence of small modular reactors, microreactors, and other advanced designs is reshaping the industry’s landscape. Digital instrumentation and controls, passive safety systems, and increased automation are creating opportunities for greater safety margins and more flexible operation. These same features also fundamentally redefine what it means to “operate” a nuclear plant. Interactions among human roles, automation, and passive systems shape how people maintain awareness, exercise judgment, and intervene when necessary. These developments affect both operational realities and the regulatory foundations on which nuclear safety is built.
R. D. Pillsbury, Jr., S. Fairfax, R. Granetz, S. Horne, I. Hutchinson, G. Tinios, S. Wolfe
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 1898-1904
Magnetic | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29996
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Alcator C-MOD is the latest in a line of high field, compact tokamaks built and operated by the Plasma Fusion Center at MIT. From the electromagnetic standpoint the machine is characterized by toroidal field (TF) coils with sliding joints, a poloidal field (PF) coil set that is inside the bore of the TF coils, and very thick-sectioned, toroidally continuous, vacuum vessel and metal structures. The tokamak is cooled to liquid nitrogen temperatures and pulsed. At the toroidal field of 9 T, the maximum temperature in the TF rises to approximately room temperature. The pulsed nature of the current together with this wide temperature range requires a solution of the coupled electromagnetic and thermal diffusion problems. In addition, eddy currents induced in the thick electrically conducting structures perturb the spatial and temporal distribution of the poloidal magnetic field in the vacuum chamber, especially for the plasma breakdown and initiation phase and during fast plasma position control. The transient electromagnetic field problem associated with these regimes must be taken into account in the design and analysis of the tokamak. The results of analyses of the electromagnetic behavior of Alcator C-MOD will be compared with measured data.