Initial Operating Experiences in a Digital Control Room

Abstract

In spring 2023, a new nuclear power plant (NPP) unit become operational in Finland and was connected to the national grid for electricity production. The turnkey construction of the unit was closely followed not only by the nuclear community but also the public. There are many features that make the new unit unique and of special interest. For example, the process control is carried out through a fully digital human-system interface (HSI). In nuclear industry, high safety and quality demands are set for the control room (CR) design and HSI systems to be used in the operation of the power plant. Before taken into use, a comprehensive quality and safety assurance through formal verification and validation (V&V) process of HSIs should be carried out to ensure that the new control system design continues to support safety and usability (YVL B.1, 2013). NUREG-0711 (O’Hara et al., 2012) review guide also set out several human factors activities that should be accomplished during the life cycle of the control system, for example, carrying out the early design phase analyses and allocation of functions to human and automation. In the case of the new NPP unit, in-service monitoring of the CR and HSI systems is a topical human factors activity after the commissioning. This is an important human factors activity even often less discussed since through it, for example training needs and important issues to be addressed in the product development process can be identified.We have conducted a walkthrough exercise of the new CR and HSI systems and a questionnaire study to collect initial operating experiences in the new digital CR and to support setting up the in-services monitoring activity regarding the operation of the new unit. Based on the results of the walkthrough, a systems usability questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire was distributed to the operators of the NPP.In the paper, we report the results of the HSI walkthrough and the survey. According to the simulator trainers, some new HFE issues have emerged after commissioning that were nor addressed in validation tests.Contrary to the handling of incident and accident situations that are central in V&V tests the main focus of in-service monitoring concerns normal operative activities. Topics that were addressed include, among others, preferences for different formats (paper vs. computer-based) of procedures, the use of two languages (English in HSIs and procedures and Finnish in normal conversation), and the needs for additional training.REFERENCESSäteilyturvakeskus: YVL B.1: Safety design of a nuclear power plant, 15 November 2013. Chapter 5.3: Control rooms.J. M. O’Hara et al., “Human Factors Engineering Program Review Model,” NUREG-0711, Rev. 3, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (2012).