Development strategies of an intelligent human-machine interface for next generation nuclear power plants

An intelligent human-machine interface (HMI) has been developed to enhance the safety and availability of a nuclear power plant (NPP) by improving operational reliability. The key elements of the proposed HMI are the large display panels that present synopsis of the plant status and the compact, digital workstations for monitoring, control, and protection functions: The workstation consists of four consoles such as a dynamic alarm console (DAC), a system information console (SIC), a computerized operating-procedure console (COC), and a safety-related information console (SRIC). The DAC provides clean alarm pictures in which information overlapping is excluded and alarm impacts are discriminated for quick situation awareness. The SIC supports a normal operation by offering all necessary system information and control functions. In addition, it is closely linked to automatically display the related system information according to situations of the DAC and the COC. The COC aids the operator with proper emergency operation guidelines so as to shutdown the plant safely, and it also reduces his physical/mental burden by tracing the operating procedures automatically. The SRIC continuously displays safety-related information so that the operator can assess the plant status focusing on plant safety. The proposed HMI has been validated and demonstrated using the full-scope simulator for Yonggwang Units 1, 2. From the demonstration results, it can be concluded that the HMI enables the operator to terminate or mitigate plant disturbances early. After sufficient validation, the characteristic design features of the proposed HMI will be reflected in the main control room for the Korean next generation NPP's.