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DOE OSTI2023

Addressing Human and Organizational Factors in Nuclear Industry Modernization: A Sociotechnically Based Strategic Framework

The modernization of nuclear power plants will require an advanced concept of operations, involving an integrated set of tightly coupled systems in which all stakeholders act in a coordinated manner. For this modernization effort to be enabled, we developed a human and organizational factors approach based on a broad sociotechnical framework. Starting from core human factors principles, we conducted a literature review of the methods and approaches relevant to the modernization problem. These included not only core disciplines such as cognitive systems engineering, systems theoretic accident modeling and processes, human systems integration, resilience engineering, and macroergonomics but also related topics of safety culture and organizational change. From this literature, we developed a conceptual framework centered around the work system with its four interacting components: people, technology, process, and governance. In an effective work system, these four components are jointly optimized according to three systems criteria: efficiency, effectiveness, and safety. System failure may result from excessive emphasis on any one criterion. The actual work of attaining joint optimization in a given work system can be accomplished by utilizing three high-level functions: knowledge elicitation, knowledge representation, and cross-functional integration. Finally, we illustrated the utility of this approach by applying it to practical problems and case studies.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Enabling control co-design of the next generation of wind power plants

Abstract. Layout design and wake steering through wind plant control are important and complex components in the design and operation of modern wind power plants. They are currently optimized separately, but with more and more computational and experimental studies demonstrating the gains possible through wake steering, there is a growing need from industry and regulating bodies to combine the layout and control optimization in a co-design process. However, combining these two optimization problems is currently infeasible due to the excessive number of design variables and large solution space. In this article, we present a method that enables the coupled optimization of wind power plant layout and wake steering with no additional computational expense than a traditional layout optimization. We developed a geometric relationship between wind turbines to find an approximate optimal yaw angle, bypassing the need for either a nested or coupled wind plant control optimization. It also provides a significant and immediate improvement to wind power plant design by enabling the co-design of turbine layout and yaw control for wake steering. A small co-designed plant shown in this article produces 0.8 % more energy than its sequentially designed counterpart. This additional energy production comes with no additional infrastructure, turbine hardware, or control software; it is simply the outcome of optimizing the turbine layout and yaw control together, resulting in millions of dollars of additional revenue for the wind power plants of the future.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Wind Plant Performance Prediction Benchmark Phase 1 (Technical Report)

Financial risk resulting from the uncertainty associated with developing, owning, and operating wind power plants remains a barrier to reducing the levelized cost of energy (LCOE). On average, modern wind power plants in the U.S. underperform their expected annual energy output by 3.5-4.5% , with many underperforming by over 10%. To compensate for this uncertainty, investors require a larger return on investment (ROI) and apply "knock-down" factors that mask much of the underlying sources of uncertainty. Wind energy projects thus have reduced access to low-cost capital. Furthermore, operating wind plants often take a simple approach to estimating operations & maintenance (O&M) costs (e.g. straight-line estimates based on similar plants), which can eat into profits. To overcome these issues, the wind industry must improve the models they use for estimating wind plant performance and operations. An industry consortium (IC) requested that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) lead a Department of Energy (DOE) working group to benchmark the accuracy of wind power plant energy predictions against real operational data. The IC was also motivated by DOE and NREL's potential to characterize systematic energy underperformance, identify sources of uncertainty, and explore root causes. The Wind Plant Performance Prediction (WP3) project was created out of this request, and this report represents the successful completion of Phase 1 of the WP3 project. During the project, wind plant owners provided both pre-construction and operational data to NREL. The pre-construction data was provided to wind resource assessment (WRA) consultants so they could conduct energy yield assessments (EYA). NREL took all of the completed EYAs, along with the operational data, and conducted an operational assessment to benchmark the EYA results against actual operational data. Given the large amounts of sensitive data required for this effort, as well as historical opposition to sharing data within industry, successful completion of Phase 1 represents an unprecedented milestone for industry data sharing. To improve the accuracy and confidence of pre-construction EYAs, wind plant owners and investors need better, more certain, energy yield predictions. The WP3 Benchmark Project is an industry-driven response to this reality. For the first time, industry has taken the important step of working together at scale, sharing valuable operational data with DOE and NREL in order to investigate the sources of bias and uncertainty in these energy estimates. This IC provides wind plant preconstruction and operational data to NREL in an organized and documented fashion and provides guidance and feedback as needed. The IC also provides introspection of the design of experiment, key metrics of success, data challenges, analysis best practices, and quality of results.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

IEA Wind TCP Task 55: The IEA Wind 740-10-MW Reference Offshore Wind Plants

This report describes the first version of the regular and irregular IEA-Wind 740-10MW Reference Offshore Wind Plants (v0.1). The two plants have been developed within the second work package of IEA Wind Task 37 on Wind Energy Systems Engineering: Integrated RD&D. The plants aim at acting as reference for future research projects on wind energy, representing modern offshore wind plants. The designs are based on the Borssele III and IV offshore wind plant projects. The associated wind resource, allotted territory, and bathymetry measurements are used to define the site characteristics. 74 IEA 10-MW Reference Wind Turbines are arranged in two suggested layouts that are optimized for maximum annual energy production: one regular grid layout, one irregular layout. These reference wind plants have been described using the WindIO ontology and have been made available through an open-source repository on GitHub.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

A century of studying plant secondary metabolism—From “what?” to “where, how, and why?”

Abstract Over the past century, early advances in understanding the identity of the chemicals that collectively form a living plant have led scientists to deeper investigations exploring where these molecules localize, how they are made, and why they are synthesized in the first place. Many small molecules are specific to the plant kingdom and have been termed plant secondary metabolites, despite the fact that they can play primary and essential roles in plant structure, development, and response to the environment. The past 100 yr have witnessed elucidation of the structure, function, localization, and biosynthesis of selected plant secondary metabolites. Nevertheless, many mysteries remain about the vast diversity of chemicals produced by plants and their roles in plant biology. From early work characterizing unpurified plant extracts, to modern integration of ‘omics technology to discover genes in metabolite biosynthesis and perception, research in plant (bio)chemistry has produced knowledge with substantial benefits for society, including human medicine and agricultural biotechnology. Here, we review the history of this work and offer suggestions for future areas of exploration. We also highlight some of the recently developed technologies that are leading to ongoing research advances.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Use of Systems Engineering in Repurposing Coal-Fired Power Plants with Malta Pumped Thermal Energy Storage System

he electric sector across North America is facing a transition. Both economics and policy decisions have pointed towards a broad retirement of fossil assets across markets. Owners are facing the problem of how to evolve the base of the electric sector from fossil asset to greener alternative. Coal-fired power plants built the modern electricity grid. Their rotating machinery are the beating heart of the grid, providing essential resiliency and reliability services. Power plant retirements are disruptive to plant workforces and cause outsized impacts on surrounding communities. The transition from thermal power plants that use rotating machinery to generate electricity (e.g., coal- and gas-fired plants) to variable, inverter-based generation (e.g., solar and wind) is affecting the reliability of the electric grid. Grid operators and national regulators have issued warnings about known and anticipated risk. In 2021, Malta Inc. was awarded a Department of Energy (DOE) grant to study how to integrate a Malta 100MW Pumped Heat Energy Storage (PHES) system with a retiring coal-fired power plant to meet emissions requirements, retain plant workforces, preserve communities, and maintain grid reliability. This presentation provides a summary of this study, focusing on how systems engineering approach was used to arrive at a proposed design concept that met multiple objectives and requirements. There will be three main parts for this presentation. The first part of the presentation will focus on how different systems engineering was applied for this work. In particular, the following areas: stakeholder engagement, site selection process, developing requirements and use cases for the integrated system, defining the system and its boundary, coming up with different system architecture/option, performing a techno-economic analysis to compare the different options and down selection of the preferred option, will be discusses. For these areas, discussion on the decisions on how much breadth and depth to go into each area will be provided. These discussions provide good insights into how to apply systems engineering. The second part of the presentation will provide a deeper dive into the two recommended integration options that repurpose coal-fired power plants with Malta PHES system. The comparison of the two options and general guidance of how to choose an option will be provided. This is particularly useful for utilities who are facing coal-plant retirements. The two options will be compared based on its performance (such as power output, efficiency), complexity, and cost. The social impact on local communities of the two options will also be discussed. The final part of the presentation will discuss the impact that this work has had, including Malta Inc. being invited to the White House to discuss progress and outcomes of this work with the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization. In summary, this presentation aims to provide a showcase of how sy

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2023

Analysis of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Data

Electricity generated using nuclear power accounted for 18.9% of all electricity consumed in the United States in 2021, putting it in third place behind natural gas (38%) and coal (22%) power plants. Nuclear power plants boast a significantly higher uptime or capacity factor—90% and above—compared to 49.1% for coal fired power plants and 56.6% for natural gas power plants. Renewable energy sources, such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind electricity, have lower capacity factors: 24.9% and 36.3%, respectively. In addition, nuclear power is cleaner than both coal and natural gas fired power plants. With the passing of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, significant tax credits will be claimed by producers of hydrogen with well-to-gate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions below 0.45 kg CO 2e /kg H 2 . This has sparked interest in using clean sources of electricity, including nuclear power, to generate H 2 via water electrolysis. As uranium is a primary fuel for modern nuclear power plants, the upstream emissions from nuclear fuel production greatly impact the GHG emissions related to all nuclear power end use. Therefore, it is important to accurately determine the upstream emissions associated with the nuclear fuel cycle of nuclear power production in the United States. In this analysis, the nuclear fuel cycle was separated into distinct steps to allow better understanding of the chemical and energy inputs at each step of the fuel cycle. This also provides details of the GHG emissions at each step in the nuclear fuel cycle. The transportation distance for each step of the fuel cycle was updated to account for the locations of uranium processing facilities along the supply chain of the current U.S. nuclear power plants. Finally, all the updated values were incorporated into Argonne National Laboratory’s Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2022

A framework to implement human reliability analysis during early design stages of advanced reactors

Nuclear power plants require human actions throughout their lifecycle from design, construction, operation, and decommissioning. However, for advanced reactors (e.g., Generation IV), the reliance on human intervention in safety-related actions is expected to be reduced or completely replaced by automated actions. The Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) Standard for Advanced Non-LWR Nuclear Power Plants requires that the impacts of all operator actions are captured and incorporated in the risk of the modeled plant. Moreover, the Modernization of Technical Requirements for Licensing Advanced Reactors requires human reliability analysis (HRA) to be included throughout all design and PRA development stages. However, due to the lack of details during the early design stages, HRA is often postponed until the design is mature enough. Conducting HRA in later design stages, though it may be adequate in capturing pre-, at-, and post-initiators comes short of informing the design itself in the iterative design lifecycle. Hence, this paper presents a framework to include HRA during the design's early stages, pre-conceptual or conceptual. The proposed framework provides a process for the removal of operator actions that do not contribute to the risk and the identification of all key operator actions that are critical to the safety of the design. The results of this framework are then used to inform the design of those safety-related operator actions to update the design further. Then, using information from the updated design, this framework can be reapplied to investigate the impact of the design update on human reliability. The PRA model of the X-energy's pre-conceptual Xe-100 high-temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed reactor (HTGR-PB) design is used to demonstrate the approach. In the pre-conceptual Xe-100 PRA model, also called Phase 0 PRA model, human actions were considered an integral part of analyzing the plant response to different initiating events. Hence, in this paper, all possible human actions in the Xe-100 PRA model are identified, analyzed, and removed to emulate a design relying only on the available automated control systems. The preliminary results of this assessment show how safe the Xe-100 design is even without crediting any human actions. The results also list necessary sequences in which operator actions are critical to the risk profile of the design.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Resource Analysis of NP Kunta Solar Park Site (White Paper)

India has set a target of 175 GW of renewable energy (RE) capacity by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030. Flexibility is key for efficient integration of renewables. The modern-day RE plants are grid-friendly and can also provide this flexibility. A pilot to demonstrate this flexibility by implementing automatic generation control (AGC) at a solar plant is being done by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under USAID’s Greening the Grid (GTG) Program and Renewable Integration & Sustainable Energy (RISE) initiative. This paper presents the resource variability analysis of the 250-MW NP Kunta solar plant site where the AGC pilot project is being implemented. This paper also demonstrates the use of publicly available resource quality data, which can be utilized by various stakeholders to better understand the variability of any existing or potential RE site in India and possibly increase confidence in decisions or help to understand the impacts that can be expected.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Multi-Timescale Integrated Dynamic and Scheduling Model (MIDAS-Solar)

Solar photovoltaic (PV) installations have experienced unprecedented growth in the United States. PV will become not only an energy producer but also a necessary provider of ancillary services at multiple timescales. Conventional methods to simulate power system operations - such as long-term production simulation (which typically considers schedules from hours to minutes by using an optimization framework) and short-term transient studies (which simulate dynamics from seconds to sub-seconds using state variables and differential equations) are not sufficient for studying the multiple-timescale variation of solar generation and its impact on system reliability. Long-term system economics and short-term system dynamics are highly coupled, particularly when the penetration level of renewable generation is extremely high, because the uncertainty and variability of solar generation will impact both power systems steady-state and dynamic performance. This project helps meet and exceed the Solar Energy Technologies Office goal of systems integration by directly addressing this stability and reliability challenge for electric grid planning and operation. This will be accomplished by developing temporally comprehensive, closed-loop simulation models that seamlessly simulate power systems operations from economic scheduling (day-ahead to hours) to dynamic response analysis (seconds to sub-seconds). Both a multi-timescale grid model and an integrated PV model will be developed in this project to accurately study the impacts of PV variability and uncertainty on system reliability at multiple timescales. Using quasi-dynamic simulation methods and data-driven security assessment (DSA) criteria will allow the dynamic characteristics of PV to be fed forward into longer-timescale scheduling models for a complete understanding of the effect of short-term PV dynamics on bulk systems operations (e.g., reserve scheduling and deployment). Upon completion of the proposed model, this project will help operators accurately assess system reliability by deploying energy and reserve scheduling under critical contingency conditions and studying interactions among all types of essential reliability services provided by modern PV power plants.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Co-existence of Heterogeneous Wireless Networks in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Spectrum

To achieve automation across different applications, next-generation nuclear power plants are beginning to leverage advanced wireless technologies. The deployment of these wireless technologies is a salient need for modernizing the existing nuclear plants. A “one-size-fits-all” solution cannot be adopted since wireless technologies are selected according to specific application needs, quality of service, and economic restrictions. To balance the trade-off between technical and economic requirements, a multi-band heterogeneous wireless network architecture is needed. However, the co-existence of these multi-band wireless technologies poses numerous challenges. Due to factors including dissimilarity in channel access mechanisms, transmit power levels, distance between nodes, and interference among co-existing solutions, performance can be seriously degraded, leading to very low signal-to-noise ratio. This report builds on our previous study, "Experimental Evaluation of Interference in 2.4 GHz Wireless Network," which analyzed the performance of wireless communication technologies such as Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Bluetooth co-existing within the 2.4 GHz band. We now extend this study by developing a new upper-layer approach that uses rate control to create temporary opportunities for signal transmission while using the shared band. Unlike existing work in the literature, our approach does not require modifications at the link or physical layers of the network. Further, we extend our work to explore the co-existence of Wi-Fi and fifth-generation (5G) in the 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum, using both experiments and simulations. This report provides a technical foundation for understanding the operational designs of Wi-Fi and 5G in the unlicensed band and evaluates their performance when these networks co-exist. Our findings show that the performance of 5G can be improved by controlling the Wi-Fi’s packet rate at the upper layer.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2021

Data Driven Approach to Analyzing The Impact of Power Plant Cycling on Air Preheater Degradation and Remaining Useful Life

Due to the increased penetration of renewable energy generation sources, and fluctuations of the oil and gas prices, modern coal burning power plants deal with increased variability in the demand for power generation. These varying demands result in their intermittent under-capacity operation (cycling). Periodical ramping down and back up to follow the daily power demands causes damages to the plant components reducing its operational life. In this paper we analyze the impact of cycling on a rotary Ljungstrom air preheater (APH) unit installed at a coal fire power plant in the US. An inefficient air preheater can significantly impact boiler performance. Due to the repeated boiler’s hot-cold start, the APH experiences fluctuating operating conditions that result in accelerated degradation mechanisms, such as dew-point corrosion, fouling/deposition plugging, and air heater leakage. The analysis in this paper utilizes field data related to APH basket replacement, and the number of cycles experienced by the boiler to model the life expectancy of the baskets. The data-driven model enables preventive maintenance strategies for the APH by predicting how long the APH baskets will last in a probabilistic sense. Furthermore, the analysis showed that an increase in cycling for a fixed operation time can reduce the APH basket remaining useful life by about 30%.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2021

DATA DRIVEN APPROACH TO ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF POWER PLANT CYCLING ON AIR PREHEATER DEGRADATION AND REMAINING USEFUL LIFE

Due to the increased penetration of renewable energy generation sources, and fluctuations of the oil and gas prices, modern coal burning power plants deal with increased variability in the demand for power generation. These varying demands result in their intermittent under-capacity operation (cycling). Periodical ramping down and back up to follow the daily power demands causes damages to the plant components reducing its operational life. In this paper we analyze the impact of cycling on a rotary Ljungstrom air preheater (APH) unit installed at a coal fire power plant in the US. An inefficient air preheater can significantly impact boiler performance. Due to the repeated boiler’s hot-cold start, the APH experiences fluctuating operating conditions that result in accelerated degradation mechanisms, such as dew-point corrosion, fouling/deposition plugging, and air heater leakage.The analysis in this paper utilizes field data related to APH basket replacement, and the number of cycles experienced by the boiler to model the life expectancy of the baskets. The data-driven model enables preventive maintenance strategies for the APH by predicting how long the APH baskets will last in a probabilistic sense. The analysis showed that an increase in cycling for a fixed operation time can reduce the APH basket remaining useful life by about 30%.

Sharma, Himanshu↗

DOE OSTI2021

Addressing Human and Organizational Factors In Nuclear Industry Modernization: A Sociotechnically-Based Strategic Framework

The modernization of nuclear power plants will require an advanced concept of operations, involving an integrated set of tightly coupled systems in which all stakeholders act in a coordinated manner. For this modernization effort to be enabled, we developed a human and organizational factors approach, based on a broad sociotechnical framework. Starting from core human factors principles, we conducted a literature review of the methods and approaches relevant to the modernization problem. These included core disciplines such as cognitive systems engineering, systems theoretic accident modeling and processes (STAMP), human systems integration, resilience engineering, and macroergonomics but also related topics of safety culture and organizational change. From this literature, we developed a conceptual framework centered around the work system with its four interacting components: people, technology, process, and governance. In an effective work system, these four components are jointly optimized according to three systems criteria: efficiency, effectiveness, and safety. System failure may result from excessive emphasis on any one criterion. The actual work of attaining joint optimization in a given work system can be accomplished by utilizing three high level functions: knowledge elicitation, knowledge representation, and cross-functional integration. We illustrated the utility of this approach by applying it to practical problems and case studies. The complete report is available in [1]; this paper is a description of our approach and report contents.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Failure Mechanism Traceability and Application in Human System Interface of Nuclear Power Plants using RESHA

In recent years, there has been considerable effort to modernize existing and new nuclear power plants with digital instrumentation and control systems (DI&C). However, there has also been considerable concern both by industry and regulatory bodies for the risk and consequence analysis of these systems. Of particular concern are digital common cause failures (CCFs) specifically related to software defects. These “misbehaviors” by the software can occur in both the control and monitoring of a system. While many new methods have been proposed to identify potential software failure modes, such as Systems-theoretic Process Analysis (STPA), Hazard and Consequence Analysis for Digital Systems (HAZCADS), etc., these methods are focused primarily on the control action pathway of a system. In contrast, the information feedback pathway lacks unsafe control actions (UCAs), which are typically related to software basic events; thus, assessment of software basic events in such systems is unclear. In this work, we present the idea of intermediate processors and unsafe information flow (UIF) to help safety analysts trace failure mechanisms in the feedback pathway and how they can be integrated into a fault tree for improved assessment capability. The concepts presented are demonstrated in two comprehensive case studies, a smart sensor integrated platform for unmanned autonomous vehicles and another on a representative advanced human system interface (HSI) for safety critical plant monitoring. The qualitative software basic events are identified, and a fault tree analysis is conducted based on a modified Redundancy-guided Systems-theoretic Hazard Analysis (RESHA) methodology. The case studies demonstrate the use of UIF and intermediate processors in the fault tree to improve traceability of software failures in highly complex digital instrumentation feedback. The improved method can also clarify fault tree construction when multiple component dependencies are present in the system.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Failure Mechanism Traceability and Application in Human System Interface of Nuclear Power Plants using RESHA

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Optimizing Information Automation Using a New Method Based on System-Theoretic Process Analysis: Tool Development and Method Evaluation

This report is an update to a prior report that describes progress and findings for a program of research supporting the design and optimization of information automation systems for nuclear power plants. Much of the domestic nuclear fleet is currently focused on modernizing technologies and processes, including transitioning toward digitalization in the control room and throughout the plant, along with a greater interest in the use of automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, and other emerging technologies. While there are significant opportunities to apply these technologies toward greater plant safety, efficiency, and overall cost-effectiveness, optimizing their design and avoiding potential safety and performance risks depends on ensuring that human performance-related organizational and technical design issues are identified and addressed early in the design process. This report describes modeling tools and techniques, based on sociotechnical systems theory, to support these design goals and their application in the current research effort. The report is primarily intended for senior nuclear energy stakeholders, including regulators, corporate management, and senior plant management. We have developed and employed a method to design an optimized information automation ecosystem (IAE) based on the systems-theoretic constructs underlying sociotechnical systems theory in general and the Systems-Theoretic Accident Modeling and Processes (STAMP) approach in particular. We argue that an IAE can be modeled as an interactive information control system whose behavior can be understood in terms of dynamic control, feedback, and communication relationships amongst the system’s technical and organizational components. We have employed two STAMP-based tools in this effort. The first is Causal Analysis based on STAMP (CAST), an accident and incident analysis technique that was used to examine a performance- and safety-related incident at an industry partner’s plant involving the unintentional activation of an emergency diesel generator. This analysis provided insight into the behavior of the plant’s current information control structure within the context of a specific, significant event. The second tool is Systems Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) which is a proactive risk analysis tool used to examine existing and potential, planned sociotechnical systems. STPA was used to identify risk factors in the current design of a generic nuclear power plant (NPP) preventive maintenance system. Our analyses focused on identifying near-term system improvements and longer-term design requirements for an optimized IAE system. CAST analysis findings indicate an important underlying contributor to the incident under investigation, and a significant risk to information automation system performance, was perceived time and schedule pressure, which exposed weaknesses in interdepartmental coordination between and within responsible plant organizations and challenged the resilience of established plant processes, until a human caused the eventual event. These findings are discussed in terms of their risk to overall system performance and their implications for information automation system resilience and brittleness. STPA findings exposed several areas of concern in the design of current preventive maintenance systems. We also present two preliminary information automation models. The proactive issue resolution (PIR) model is a test case of an information automation concept with significant near-term potential for application and subsequent reduction in significant plant events. The IAE model is a more general representation of a broader, plantwide information automation system and represents an end-state vision for our work. From our results, we have generated an initial set of preliminary system-level requirements and safety constraints for these models. We have also focused on early development of easy to learn, easy to use “transportable” tools for sociotechnical systems analysis. We intend these to be used by NPP personnel as a means of gaining reliable and relatively quick insight into (1) sociotechnical systems factors impacting incidents and accidents, (2) potential sociotechnical risk factors in existing or planned system designs, and (3) potential weaknesses in a system’s safety and/or information control structure. We conclude the report with a set of summary recommendations, a discussion of planned and potential follow-on research and development, and a draft list of system-level requirements and safety constraints for optimized information automation systems.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2024

FY24 LWRS Program overview

This slide deck provides a brief overview of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program. It will be used during public presentations. The LWRS Program aims to enhance the safe, efficient, and economical performance of our nation's nuclear fleet and extend the operating lifetimes of this reliable source of electricity.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗