ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
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.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
Standards Program
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
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.”
Heather D. Medema, Kateryna Savchenko, Ronald L. Boring, Thomas A. Ulrich (INL)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 132-141
Nuclear power plants are gradually digitizing their control rooms. This transition has been slow to come in the United States due to the reliability of existing equipment relative to the age of the plants; the stockpiled availability of analog spare parts; and the conservative, change-aversive nature of the nuclear industry. Meanwhile, plants saw the birth of human reliability analysis (HRA), which was largely developed to meet safety and regulatory requirements specifically in the nuclear industry. HRA reflected the as-built analog control nature of the plants, with little call to catalog and quantify emerging digital technologies that were not yet deployed. Other safety critical industries have been slower to embrace HRA, and a stumbling block remains their inability to generalize the methods to address the now ubiquitous digital control systems in these industries. New plant builds and control room modernization now present the need to ensure that HRA adequately covers digital control technologies being deployed in nuclear power plants. Digital systems present different human error opportunities, and the methods have not been adapted to this change. In this paper, we review considerations in operator performance that accompany the transition from analog to digital controls. These considerations drive new directions in HRA that will address both nuclear and non-nuclear digital controls. Finally, the technology shift from analog to digital control room creates new vulnerability for cyber threats.