A computer-based emergency operating procedure with desirable features

Computer-based procedures (CBPs) were developed to overcome the drawback of the paper-based procedures (PBPs). In addition, CBPs are intended to increase the operator performance by reducing time for completing the task, reducing workload and reducing errors in transition between procedures, especially in a nuclear emergency condition, because all the necessary data can be provided at the operator consoles. In an emergency condition, operators need sufficient information which help them to mitigate the accident without any mistakes. However, despite the benefits of CBPs, most of CBPs do not provide necessary information about the impact of their counteractions following the operating procedures to the system components and future plant behavior. Therefore, this paper proposes a preliminary design of a CBP with the desirable features of additional information (components influenced and future plant behavior). The additional information is derived from modeling the counteractions of mitigating an accident of PWR plant following the emergency operating procedure using control function in multilevel flow modeling (MFM) and by implementing influence propagation rules. Then, the additional information is extracted and displayed on the CBP user interface. The purpose of providing the additional information is to give operators clear views about the purposes of the procedure steps and the impact of their counteractions in executing procedure steps which will increase the situation awareness of operators and reduce the potential of human errors.