Development and assessment of a nearly autonomous management and control system for advanced reactors

Abstract

This paper develops a Nearly Autonomous Management and Control (NAMAC) system for advanced reactors. The development process of NAMAC is characterized by a three layer-layer architecture: knowledge base, the Digital Twin (DT) developmental layer, and the NAMAC operational layer. The DT is described as a knowledge acquisition system from the knowledge base for intended uses in the NAMAC system. A set of DTs with different functions is developed with acceptable performance and assembled according to the NAMAC operational workflow to furnish recommendations to operators. To demonstrate the capability of the NAMAC system, a case study is designed, where a baseline NAMAC is implemented for operating a simulator of the Experimental Breeder Reactor II during a single loss of flow accident. When NAMAC is operated in the training domain, it can provide reasonable recommendations that prevent the peak fuel centerline temperature from exceeding a safety criterion.