Acceptance of new technology and layout in control rooms

Abstract

EPZ, the Electricity Generating Company Ltd. for the Southern Netherlands, owns and operates the Borssele Nuclear Power Plant which is located near Flushing on the Schelde estuary. In 1997 an extensive backfitting programme was carried out at this twin-loop 480 MWe PWR in order to raise nuclear safety to a level comparable with that of a modern plant. One of the key issues in order to accomplish this was the definition of a ‘protected zone’. This zone includes the reactor containment and the bunkered building, housing the alternative cooling system, the RPS and the back-up control room. Systems in the protected zone are able to withstand external events as earthquake, airplane crash, gas-cloud explosion and flooding. Of course internal events are taken in account too. From the back-up Control Room it is possible to bring the reactor to a safe and stable cold sub-critical state.

Another major part of the work focused on electrical systems, instrumentation and control and Human-Machine Interaction (HMI). During the project a lot of experience was gathered on (operator) acceptance of new technology and layout in control rooms. Two sub-projects were of importance here, namely the renewal of the main control room and the revamp of the process computer.