Several nuclear power plants are starting I&C modernization programs using digital equipment to address obsolescence issues and the need to improve plant performance while maintaining high levels of safety. As an integral part of the I&C modernization program at a nuclear power plant, the control room and other human-system interfaces (HSIs) will also be modernized. To support safe and effective operation, it is critical to design, implement, train for, operate, and maintain the control room and HSI changes to take advantage of human cognitive processing abilities. A project, jointly funded by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and United States Department of Energy (DOE), is developing guidance for specifying and designing digital components and systems, and their incorporation into control rooms, remote shut-down panels, etc. The guidance is intended for application by utilities and suppliers of digital I&C replacements. The guidance will facilitate specification, design, implementation, operations, maintenance, training, and licensing activities. This guidance will be used to reduce the likelihood of human errors and licensing risk, to gain maximum benefit of implemented technology, and to increase performance. The guidance is of four types. The first is planning guidance to help a utility develop its plant-specific control room operating concepts, its plant-specific endpoint vision for the control room, its migration path to achieve that endpoint vision, and its regulatory, licensing, and human factors program plans. The second is guidance for general HSI design and integration, human factors engineering analyses, training and simulation, verification and validation, and performance monitoring processes. The third is detailed guidance for control room and HSI technical areas. The fourth is guidance for licensing. Additional special topics guidance, such as operation under degraded conditions is also included. Currently, the plan is that the overall guidelines will be made up of 27 guidelines on different topics that are at various stages of completion. This may increase based on input from the project working group, which includes 21 utilities.
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