Designing for Situation Awareness in the Main Control Room of a Small Modular Reactor

Abstract

The nuclear industry is entering into a generation in which Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) could provide solutions to the worlds future energy needs. New technology and operations will be associated with new Human Factors (HF) design challenges. Operators may be faced with a higher cognitive workloads while monitoring several reactor units at once from a central main control room (MCR), or when monitoring units remotely. Automated processes may be implemented to mitigate human error, however may also result in a reduced sense of operator awareness in situations where operators fail to develop an accurate mental model of plant status. The present article highlights design recommendations that should be considered during the early stages of SMR MCR design to optimize human performance. Also discussed is the potential applications of eye tracking, and virtual reality (VR) to inform designers on best practices in display design and control room environments, respectively.