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Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Ioannis A. Papazoglou, Elias P. Gyftopoulos
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 73 | Number 1 | January 1980 | Pages 1-18
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE80-A18703
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A methodology for the assessment of uncertainties about reliability of nuclear reactor systems described by Markov models is developed, and the uncertainties about the failure probability of the shutdown system of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor (CRBR) are assessed. Failure and repair rates and all other inputs of reliability analysis are taken as random variables with known probability distribution functions (pdf's). The pdf of reliability is calculated by both a Monte Carlo simulation and a Taylor series expansion approximation. Three techniques are developed to reduce the computational effort: (a) ordering of system states, (b) merging of Markov processes, and (c) judicious choice of time steps. A Markov model has been used for reliability analysis under uncertainty of the shut- down system of the CRBR. It accounts for common-cause failures, interdependences between unavailability of the system and occurrence of transients, and inspection and maintenance procedures that depend on the state of the system and that include possibility of human errors. Under these conditions, the failure probability of the shutdown system differs significantly from that computed without common-cause failures, human errors, and input uncertainties.