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Description
The modernization of the control
rooms of nuclear plants and other complex industrial facilities,
required by the fast development of instrumentation and computing
technology, must be preceded by an intense effort in researching
and evaluating the several human factors aspects involved. The objective
is to ensure that these modifications result in benefits for the
plant operation and safety, reducing human errors and increasing
efficiency.
To research and assess human factors
aspects it is fundamental to develop a proper laboratory where the
operators’ reaction and performance in this new technological environment
can be simulated and anticipated.
The Human-System Interface Laboratory
(HSIL) is dedicated to experiments based on a compact PWR reactor
simulator and intended to improve the safety and operational performance
of nuclear plants and other industrial facilities.
History
After a group of directors from CNEN
visited, in 1997, the human factors research laboratory of the KAERI
(Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute), located in the city of
Daejeon, Republic of Korea, the possibility of implanting a similar
laboratory in one of CNEN’s units was raised. The Instrumentation
and Control Department of IEN was the place designated for it.
In the same year, as a first step
to implement this project, an international cooperation agreement
was signed between CNEN – associated to Eletronuclear, Nuclear Industries
of Brazil and the Navy Technological Center in São Paulo – and the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). A
fruit of this agreement was personnel training in human factors,
from 1998 too 2000, at the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE),
in Norway, in the scope of the Halden Reactor Project (HRP) program.
Still in 1997, a process of training
IEN’s Instrumentation and Control Department personnel at COPPE’s
Production and Nuclear Engineering Programs was started.
In 1999, a cooperation agreement
in ergonomics and human factors was signed between IEN and COPPE’s
Production Program. Also, IEN strengthened the link with the Eletronuclear
Institute with a view to the same objective.
In 2000, the implementation of the
HSIL was made possible by means of a Technical Cooperation Project
(BRA-049 Project) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The KAERI won an international bidding to supply the simulator hardware
and software for the new laboratory.
On February 21, 2003, the HSIL was
inaugurated with the presence of representatives from the Science
and Technology Ministry, IAEA, KAERI’s direction and several segments
of Brazilian nuclear research and industry.
Technical Characteristics
- Simulator: PWR with 3 loops of
900 MWe
- Reference plant: Westinghouse’s
Kori 3&4, located in the Republic of Korea
- Process and instrumentation diagram
(P&ID), logic and set point diagrams
- Modeling developed by the Finnish
Company VTT Energy in the mid-1980s.
Nuclear process modeling
- SMABRE (Small Break LOCA) code
with modeling of the reactor cooling system and of the vapor generator
for biphasic fluid
- Considers 25 axial nodes for neutron
flux calculation
- Considers one neutron group
- Considers three delayed neutron
groups
- Decay heat is modeled with three
space independent sources
- The rod control system has four
control banks and four shutdown banks
- Nuclear instrumentation
- Source range monitors
- Intermediate range monitors
- Power range monitors
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| SMABRE nodalization. |
Simulated systems
Primary circuit
- Reactor core
- Reactor cooling system
- Pressurizer system
- Chemical and volume control system
- Residual heat removal system
- Emergency core cooling system
- Auxiliary systems
- Containment system
- Instrument air system
- Component cooling system
- Protection systems
- Alarm annunciator system
Secondary circuit
- Main steam system
- Turbine system
- Condenser and condensate system
- Feedwater system
- Auxiliary feedwater system
- Electrical system
Reactor protection system
- Permissive interlock
- Control interlock
- Reactor trip: 18 input signals
- Safety operation
- Safety injection
- Containment isolation
- Containment spray actuation
- Feedwater isolation
- Main steam line isolation
Operators’ interfaces
The simulator’s operation screens
are designed to make it easy for the operators to visualize and
navigate through the various plant systems. Through these screens,
the operators act upon the plant controls in order to reach the
desired operation condition. There are several operation screens,
among which can be mentioned:
- Alarm windows
- Trend graphs
- Control rod control system and
reactivity control system
- System mimics
- Overview
- Reactor Coolant System
- Chemical and Volume Control
System
- Residual Heat Removal System
- Steam Supply System
- Feedwater System
- Condenser System
- Electrical System
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| General overview
of the simulator plant. |
Instructor’s Interface
This interface enables the instructor
to insert an initial operation condition, as well as incidents and
transients, in the simulator. The instructor interface has the following
controls:
- Run/Freeze: Run: executes the
dynamic simulation - Freeze: stops the dynamic simulation
- One step: executes the dynamic
simulation just once
- Snapshot: stores a specific operation
condition, for example, 100%, 75%, 50%, turbine synchronization,
etc
- Initial Condition: uses a specific
snapshot operation condition
- Time scale: changes time scale:
0.1, 1, 5, 50, 150 of the real time
- Backtrack: returns to previous
operation condition, restarts; from a 1-minute interval up to
a maximum of 30 minutes.
- Replay: returns to previous operation
condition with a 5-minute interval up to a maximum of 30 minutes.
- Malfunction: insertion of 79 malfunctions
- Parameter Log Setup: allows the
selection of the plant variables to be stored during the simulation.
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| Instructor’s console. |
HSIL functional description
HSIL is composed of a control room
and an experiment gallery. The main component of the control room
is the simulator with its operation screens, where the operators
control the simulated plant. The experiment gallery enables the
instructor to select and carry out the experiment and its subsequent
assessment.
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| HSIL’s Functional Description. |
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| HSIL’s Physical connections. |
Main applications
- Increase the operational reliability
of nuclear power plants by means of human factors analysis and
modernization of human/system interfaces
- Design of computerized control
rooms for nuclear installations
- Experiments in ergonomics and
human factors
- Design of operator support systems
- Control room engineering
- Advanced control room concepts
- Training engineers and technicians
Main activities
- Advanced control room for HSIL’s
simulator
- Assessment of ergonomics and human
factors aspects in nuclear reactor control rooms
- Design and configuration of alarm
systems
- Assessment of decision taking
in complex system operations: impact on safety
- Assessment of safety culture in
organizations that deal with dangerous technologies
- Plant signal redundancy generation,
by software, utilizing neural networks, to validate signals in
monitoring systems
- Design of a nuclear reactor transient
and accident identification system using neural networks
Team members
Technologists
- Paulo Victor Rodrigues de Carvalho,
D.Sc. (head of the Instrumentation and Human Reliability Division),
paulov@ien.gov.br
- Mauro Vitor de Oliveira, M.Sc.
(head of the Control Room Engineering Service), mvitor@ien.gov.br
- Antônio Carlos de Abreu Mol, D.Sc.,
mol@ien.gov.br
- Cláudio Henrique dos Santos Grecco,
M.Sc., grecco@ien.gov.br
- Isaac José Antônio Luquetti dos
Santos, D.Sc., luquetti@ien.gov.br
- Silas Cordeiro Augusto, systems
analyst, silas@ien.gov.br
Technicians
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