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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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Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Latest News
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has since been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that Unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. local time on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
Tina J. Tanaka, Steven P. Nowlen, Kofi Korsah, Richard T. Wood, Christina E. Antonescu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 143 | Number 2 | August 2003 | Pages 152-160
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technologies | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3405
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Smoke can cause interruptions and upsets in active electronics. Because nuclear power plants are replacing analog with digital instrumentation and control systems, qualification guidelines for new systems are being reviewed for severe environments such as smoke and electromagnetic interference. Active digital systems, individual components, and active circuits have been exposed to smoke in a program sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The circuits and systems were all monitored during the smoke exposure, indicating any immediate effects of the smoke. The results of previous smoke exposure studies have been reported in various publications. The major immediate effect of smoke has been to increase leakage currents and to cause momentary upsets and failures in digital systems. This paper presents new results from conformal coatings, memory chips, and hard drive tests.The best conformal coatings were found to be polyurethane, parylene, and acrylic (when applied by dipping). Conformal coatings can reduce smoke-induced leakage currents and protect against metal loss through corrosion. However conformal coatings are typically flammable, so they do increase material flammability. Some of the low-voltage biased memory chips failed during a combination of high smoke and high humidity. Typically, smoke along with heat and humidity is expected during fire, rather than smoke alone. Thus, due to high sensitivity of digital circuits to heat and humidity, it is hypothesized that the impact of smoke may be secondary.Low-voltage (3.3-V) static random-access memory (SRAMs) were found to be the most vulnerable to smoke. Higher bias voltages decrease the likelihood of failure. Erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMs) and nonvolatile SRAMs were very smoke tolerant. Failures of the SRAMs occurred when two conditions were present: high density of smoke and high humidity. As the high humidity was present for only part of the test, the failures were intermittent. All of the chips that failed during the test recovered after enough venting.Hard disks were tested in severe environments but did not fail during the 2 h of monitoring.While the results of the tests documented in this report confirm that digital circuits can indeed be vulnerable to smoke, there is currently no practical, repeatable testing methodology, so it is not feasible to assess smoke susceptibility as part of environmental qualification. As a result, the most reasonable approach to minimizing smoke susceptibility is to employ design, implementation, and procedural practices that can reduce the possibility of smoke exposure and enhance smoke tolerance. Traditional approaches to mitigate its effects in digital safety instrumentation and control, such as redundancy, separation, defense in depth, as well as adherence to standards (e.g., the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' IEEE 384) and the Code of Federal Regulations Appendix R of 10 CFR 50, should continue to be applied.