Nuclear power plant environment must ensure safety of operators in Vietnam

Nuclear power plant environment must ensure safety of operators in Vietnam (Internet image)

Article 23 of Circular 30/2012/TT-BKHCN stipulates the design for optimal operator performance in Vietnam as follows:

- The human factors shall be systematically assessed, including human – machine interface for considering in the design.

- The design must be consistent with the required minimum number of workers to simultaneously perform all the operations necessary to bring the plant into the safe state in abnormal operation or accidents.

- The design must be suitable for the experience of the operators in similar nuclear power plants, and assist the operators in judging and handling the situations arising during the operation of the nuclear power plant and equipment maintenance.

- The design must be optimal the fulfillment of the operators’ responsibilities, and limit the effects of operating errors on safety.

- The human–machine interface design, and the information provided for operators must be sufficient and manageable, suitable for making decisions and take necessary actions.

- The information necessary for operators includes:

• The general state of the plant;

• The operational limits and conditions;

• The information about the automatic actuation of safety systems;

• The information about the operation of systems related to safety systems;

• The information about the necessity and time for manual actuation of specified safety actions.

- The working condition and environment must be designed to ensure the safety and effectiveness of operators.

- The design must facilitate the success of operators’ even in a short period of time and under psychological impacts. The need for intervention by the operator shall be minimized, and it shall be demonstrated that the operator has sufficient time to make a decision and sufficient time to act. The design must ensure that even the event affects the nuclear power plant, the environment in the main control room, the supplementary control room, and the corridor to the supplementary control room still do not threaten the safety of operators.

- Human factors shall be assessed to confirm that necessary actions of operators are correctly performed; simulators may be used if necessary.

More details can be found in Circular 30/2012/TT-BKHCN, which comes into force from February 11, 2013.  

Le Vy

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