Developing an Integrated Energy System Interface for Electricity-Hydrogen Hybrid Nuclear Operations

Author(s):  
Thomas A. Ulrich ◽  
Roger Lew ◽  
Ronald L. Boring ◽  
Torrey Mortenson ◽  
Jooyoung Park ◽  
...  

Nuclear power plants are looking towards integrated energy systems to address the challenges faced by increasing competition from renewable energy and cheap natural gas in wholesale electricity markets. Electricity-hydrogen hybrid operations is one potential technology being explored. As part of this investigation a human factors team was integrated into the overall engineering project to develop a human system interface (HSI) for a novel system to extract steam for a coupled hydrogen production process. This paper presents the process used to perform the nuclear specific human factors engineering required to develop the HSI for this novel and unprecedented system. Furthermore, the early integration of the human factors team and the meaningful improvements to the engineering of the system itself in addition to the successful development of the HSI for this particular application are described. Lastly, the HSI developed is presented to demonstrate the culmination of the process and disseminate a potential HSI design for electricity-hydrogen hybrid operations that may be useful for others exploring similar integrated energy systems concepts.

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 1016-1025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung-Tsan Jou ◽  
Chiuhsiang Joe Lin ◽  
Tzu-Chung Yenn ◽  
Chih-Wei Yang ◽  
Li-Chen Yang ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Casey R. Kovesdi ◽  
Katya Le Blanc

For existing United States nuclear power plant fleet to remain economically viable, the nuclear industry needs to fundamentally change the way in which these plants are operated, maintained, and supported. A digital transformation is a key strategy to address this challenge. Though, guidance in this area is a continued effort. One framework to support innovation in the nuclear industry has taken a broader perspective by focusing on how technology can be used to meet specific business needs and work for the people and processes at hand. This work discusses the role and value of human factors engineering within this nuclear innovation framework. Human factors methods are presented here regarding how they address the phases of nuclear innovation. This work seeks to describe how human factors can be applied in nuclear innovation by strengthening the alignment of technology, people, processes, and regulations such that the needs of the business is addressed.


Author(s):  
Ronald L. Boring ◽  
Thomas A. Ulrich ◽  
Roger Lew

The Guideline for Operational Nuclear Usability and Knowledge Elicitation (GONUKE) framework was introduced in 2015 to support human factors evaluations needed for control room upgrades at nuclear power plants. NUREG-0711, the Human Factors Engineering Program Review Model, is used by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review human factors activities associated with human-system interfaces at nuclear power plants, and GONUKE is anchored to the phases of development and design in NUREG-0711. This paper addresses five considerations to help users of GONUKE better apply the framework to evaluations for NUREG-0711 and beyond. These five considerations are: (1) GONUKE only specifies evaluation, not design; (2) GONUKE is a framework, not a method or process; (3) GONUKE goes beyond NUREG-0711 requirements; (4) GONUKE application shouldfollow a graded approach; (5) different evaluations are required fo r formative vs. summative phases.


Author(s):  
Pedro Trueba Alonso ◽  
Lui´s Ferna´ndez Illobre ◽  
Alfonso Jime´nez Ferna´ndez-Sesma ◽  
Fernando Ortega Pascual

Tecnatom has been performing Human Factors Engineering Verification and Validation (HFE V&V) from the mid-eighties. This activity started as one of the various activities of the post TMI requirements followed also in Spain: performing detailed Control Room Design Reviews (DCRDRs). All the existing Spanish Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) were reviewed to identify Human Engineering Discrepancies (HEDs). DCRDRs were completed by the mid-nineties, and the following V&V activities have been related to new designs and plant modifications as part of the activities described in the Human Factors Program Review Model (HFE PRM), included in NUREG-0711 since 1994. The NRC recommends following the HFE PRM or an acceptable alternative method in the case of the HFE activities and the Spanish Regulatory Body (CSN) recommend the same approach for new designs, design modifications and even for conventional plants. The activities embedded in a HFE V&V process are Task Support Verification (TSV), HFE Design Verification (HFE DV) using NUREG-0700 HFE Guidelines, and Integrated System Validation (ISV), with the execution of performance based tests, mainly in simulator facilities. This paper describes some of the experience of Tecnatom during the past years regarding the execution of these V&V activities previously mentioned, and in relation to the applicability and methodological aspects of each of these activities. Methodological aspects regarding TSV are related to its execution when there is a no Task Analysis to use. Methodological aspects regarding the HFE DV are related to the type of HSI to verify (small or large), its development status (paper design or implemented), the selection and translation of applicable HFE guidelines, and the HED preparation. Methodological aspects regarding the ISV are related to the necessary crews, training, number of scenarios, issues to test, data collection and performance measures. The experience is mainly related to Tecnatom’s work is Spanish NPP like Jose´ Cabrera, Almaraz and Vandello´s and in the case of foreign plants Beznau and an advanced NPP in Taiwan amongst others.


Author(s):  
Fei Song ◽  
Shuhui Zhang

Main control room in nuclear power plants (NPP) is a complex system where operators interact with a large amount of human system interface (HSI) resources, which is essential to the safety of the plant. In order to achieve a high standard of human factors engineering (HFE) level and ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the system, verification and validation (V&V) should be performed before the delivery of the plant. This study firstly represents an overview of the HFE project and V&V activities applied in the nuclear industry and relative researches, then, a V&V program from an ongoing 300MW NPP project is discussed in detail. Comparative methods, existing system vs. design requirements, are mainly applied for the verification phase. In the HFE Design Verification, 10 different HFE design guideline sets and corresponding checklists are developed for the experienced reviewers to conduct a thoroughness and consistency review. Critical safety functions, risk important tasks, critical human actions and other necessary operations are verified in the Task Support Verification to insure that HSI provides all required resources for personnel tasks. Other than direct comparison, a development platform is also used to assist the analysis of display, alarm and other appropriate features. In the validation phase, an integrated system test would be completed on a full scope simulator with the participation of experienced operators from the utility as subjects and multi-discipline observers. Scenarios are carefully designed to ensure the representative of the test. Both objective and subjective results would be collected and processed mainly by the descriptive statistics method to find out the problems in the existing design. All the discrepancies found in the whole V&V would be involved in a specific database and tracked until resolved. Lessons learned from this case are discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document