Development of advanced direct perception displays for nuclear power plants to enhance monitoring, control and fault management
- and others
Traditional Single-Sensor-Single Indicator (SSSI) displays are poorly matched to the cognitive abilities of operators, especially for large and complex systems. It is difficult for operators to monitor very large arrays of displays and controls, and to integrate the information displayed therein. In addition, standard operating procedures (SOPs) are bulky (running to many hundreds of pages) and difficult to use, and operators may become lost. For these reasons, and also because it is becoming increasingly difficult to find replacements for aging hardware components, there is a trend towards computerized graphical interfaces for nuclear power plants (NPPs). There is, however, little rational theory for display design in this domain. This report describes some recent theoretical developments and shows how to develop displays which will greatly reduce the cognitive load on the operator and allow the use of perceptual rather than cognitive mechanisms while using SON and to support state diagnosis and fault management. The report outlines the conceptual framework within which such a new approach could be developed, and provides an example of how the operating procedures for the start-up sequence of a NPP could be realized. A detailed description of a set of displays for a graphical interface for the SON of the feedwater system is provided as an example of how the proposed approach could be realized, and a general account of how it would fit into the overall start-up sequence is given. Examples of {open_quotes}direct perception{close_quotes} or {open_quotes}ecological{close_quotes} configural state space displays to support the use of the proposed direct manipulation SOP interface are provided, and also a critical discussion which identifies some difficulties which may be anticipated should the general approach herein advocated be adopted.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-92ER75781
- OSTI ID:
- 510573
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/75781-T2; ON: DE97008095; TRN: 97:014551
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: [1997]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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