Preliminary design of human-machine interface for control room of modular reactor

Abstract

Design of main control room (MCR) should be appropriate to the system features and user characteristics to enable operator conducting more safe and reliable reactor operation tasks. Considers the digital based systems are employed in the control room of the current reactor design, the large display panels and operator control consoles are the essential elements of the human machine interfaces (HMI). The paper discusses the design process of HMI for single unit of modular reactor, including the control room components arrangement. The10MWt of high temperature gas cooled reactor type design considered has sufficient information data for conducting HMI design process was used to represent the unit of modular reactor in this study. HMI design in the control room covers two main function areas which are reactor system and conventional island. In this paper the discussion was emphasized on the HMI design for reactor system. The method applied in the development process is based on the NUREG-711 and ISO 11064-1. The results obtained from identification of reactor system characteristics and operation based on the conceptual design document, basic design, and further discussions with the design developers are used in constructing of HMI design. The preliminary HMI design was integrated in the control room which consists of large display panel, control consoles and supervisor workstation, where the structure and hierarchy are applied based on its functions. The information hierarchy and design consistency are important especially for the HMI of multi modules reactor. Moreover, additional information displays are also required to ensure the essential information can be presented appropriately. The large display panels of the designed HMI composed of large screen displays, mimic displays and alarm tiles employed as a tool to present outline information of the plant. Three operation personnel were set to conduct operation task in the control room. The design obtained in this stage is not enough detail, however it can be further developed and modified according the completeness of reactor information data.