PSAM 16 Conference Paper Overview
Welcome to the PSAM 16 Conference paper and speaker overview page.
Lead Author: Claire Blackett Co-author(s): Maren H. Rø Eitrheim, maren.eitrheim@ife.no
Robert McDonald, robert.mcdonald@ife.no
Marten Bloch, marten.bloch@ife.no
| Human Performance in Operation of Small Modular Reactors |
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| The interest in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) continues to grow worldwide, with even more countries and organisations exploring how SMRs could meet future energy needs. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in 2020 there were over 70 SMR designs in development around the world. The interest in how SMR technology could be deployed has extended beyond energy production, and now includes using SMRs for e.g., district heating, desalination and even hydrogen production. There have been significant advancements in recent years in the development of SMR technology, with the NuScale light water SMR being the first commercial reactor of this type to have received design approval by a regulatory body in 2020. Despite these advancements, the IAEA notes that there are still issues related to control room staffing and human factors engineering for multi-module SMR plant designs that require “considerable” attention. Due to the highly commercial nature of the SMR industry, publicly available information about plans for the conduct of operations in SMR control rooms has been very limited resulting in a somewhat “black box” effect for those who wish to understand more about these issues. A research activity was initiated in 2018 within the Halden Reactor Project (HRP) - now called the Halden Human Technology Organisation (HTO) project - with a focus on understanding and investigation of human performance aspects of the operation of SMRs. One of the goals of this activity is to collect information via document reviews, workshops and short surveys and examine this to determine aspects such as: the state-of-the art in SMR developments with respect to conduct of operations; the human factors and human performance issues that are of the most interest to stakeholders such as regulators and researchers; whether there are lessons that can be learned from other industries that have implemented similar work strategies, e.g., monitoring and operation of multiple units from a single control room. In this paper, we will present and discuss the key human performance topics, uncertainties and research questions that have been identified so far in the HRP/HTO research activity on SMRs. We will describe the results from a pilot experimental study conducted in 2019 in a basic principle integral pressurised water reactor (iPWR) simulator, and how we intend to expand our experimental program to collect empirical data on human performance in the operation of SMRs. |
Paper CL109 Preview
Author and Presentation Info
Lead Author Name: Claire Blackett (claire.blackett@ife.no)
Bio: Dr. Claire Blackett is a Senior Research Scientist in the department of Humans and Automation at the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) in Halden, Norway. Claire’s research interests include human-automation and human-robot interaction, human performance and reliability in technologically advanced environments, and the ethical use of artificial intelligence in society. Before moving to Norway, Claire worked for several years as a human factors specialist in the UK nuclear industry, providing human factors and human reliability analysis support to nuclear safety cases, as well as conducting human factors engineering assessments and providing input to event investigations at existing nuclear sites. She continues to work within the nuclear industry today, as well as the petroleum, maritime, rail, healthcare, and process industries. Claire has a background in root cause analysis and accident investigation methods, with a PhD in this topic from University College Dublin, Ireland.
Country: Norway
Company: Institute for Energy Technology
Job Title: Senior Research Scientist
Bio: Dr. Claire Blackett is a Senior Research Scientist in the department of Humans and Automation at the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) in Halden, Norway. Claire’s research interests include human-automation and human-robot interaction, human performance and reliability in technologically advanced environments, and the ethical use of artificial intelligence in society. Before moving to Norway, Claire worked for several years as a human factors specialist in the UK nuclear industry, providing human factors and human reliability analysis support to nuclear safety cases, as well as conducting human factors engineering assessments and providing input to event investigations at existing nuclear sites. She continues to work within the nuclear industry today, as well as the petroleum, maritime, rail, healthcare, and process industries. Claire has a background in root cause analysis and accident investigation methods, with a PhD in this topic from University College Dublin, Ireland.
Country: Norway
Company: Institute for Energy Technology
Job Title: Senior Research Scientist