Multi-unit Operations in Non-Nuclear Systems: Lessons Learned for Small Modular Reactors
The nuclear-power community has reached the stage of proposing advanced reactor designs to support power generation for decades to come. Small modular reactors (SMRs) are one approach to meet these energy needs. While the power output of individual reactor modules is relatively small, they can be grouped to produce reactor sites with different outputs. Also, they can be designed to generate hydrogen, or to process heat. Many characteristics of SMRs are quite different from those of current plants and may be operated quite differently. One difference is that multiple units may be operated by a single crew (or a single operator) from one control room. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is examining the human factors engineering (HFE) aspects of SMRs to support licensing reviews. While we reviewed information on SMR designs to obtain information, the designs are not completed and all of the design and operational information is not yet available. Nor is there information on multi-unit operations as envisioned for SMRs available in operating experience. Thus, to gain a better understanding of multi-unit operations we sought the lesson learned from non-nuclear systems that have experience in multi-unit operations, specifically refineries, unmanned aerial vehicles and tele-intensive care units. In this paper we report the lessons learned from these systems and the implications for SMRs.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION/NON-NUREG
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-98CH10886
- OSTI ID:
- 1043369
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-96816-2012-CP; R&D Project: 15444; N-6862; 401001060; TRN: US1203124
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: The 8th American Nuclear Society International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies NPIC-HMIT 2012; San Diego, California; 20120722 through 20120726
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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