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Nuclear power plants (NPPs) have technical specifications (Tech Specs) to ensure that the equipment and key operating parameters necessary for the safe operation of the power plant are maintained within limiting conditions for operation (LCO) determined by a safety analysis. The LCO of Tech Specs that identify the lowest functional capability of equipment required for safe operation for a facility must be complied for the safe operation of NPP.There have been previous studies to aid in compliance with LCO relevant to rule-based expert systems; however, there is an obvious limit to expert systems for implementing the rules for many situations related to LCO. Therefore, in this study, we present a retrieval methodology for similar LCO cases in determining whether LCO is met or not met. To reflect the natural language processing of NPP features, a domain dictionary was built, and the optimal term frequency-inverse document frequency variant was selected. The retrieval performance was improved by adding a Boolean retrieval model based on terms related to the LCO in addition to the vector space model. The developed domain dictionary and retrieval methodology are expected to be exceedingly useful in determining whether LCO is met.

Because nuclear power plants (NPPs) are safety-critical infrastructure, it is essential to increase their safety and minimize risk. To reduce human error and support decision-making by operators, several artificial-intelligence-based diagnosis methods have been proposed. However, because of the nature of data-driven methods, conventional artificial intelligence requires large amount of measurement values to train and achieve enough diagnosis resolution.We propose a graph neural network (GNN) based accident diagnosis algorithm to achieve high diagnosis resolution with limited measurements. The proposed algorithm is trained with both the knowledge about physical correlation between components and measurement values. To validate the proposed methodology has a sufficiently high diagnostic resolution with limited measurement values, the diagnosis of multiple accidents was performed with limited measurement values and also, the performance was compared with convolution neural network (CNN). In case of the experiment that requires low diagnostic resolution, both CNN and GNN showed good results. However, for the tests that requires high diagnostic resolution, GNN greatly outperformed the CNN.

According to the defense-in-depth concept, not only a preventive strategy but also an integrated cyberattack response strategy for NPPs should be established. However, there are limitations in terms of responding to penetrations, and the existing EOPs are insufficient for responding to intentional disruptions. In this study, we focus on manipulative attacks on process data. Based on an analysis of the related attack vectors and possible attack scenarios, we adopt the Kalman filter to detect process anomalies that can be caused by manipulations of process data. To compensate for these manipulations and secure MCR operators' situational awareness, we modify the Kalman filter such that it can filter out the effects of the manipulations adaptively. A case study was conducted using a hardware-in-the-loop system. The results indicated that the developed method can be used to verify whether the displayed safety-related state data are reliable and to implement the required safety response actions.

As regulatory bodies require full implementation of security controls in nuclear power plants (NPPs), security functions for critical digital assets are currently being developed. For the ultimate introduction of security controls, not alternative measures, it is important to understand the relationship between possible cyber threats to NPPs and security controls to prevent them. To address the effectiveness of the security control implementation, this study investigated the types of cyber threats that can be prevented when the security controls are implemented through the mapping of the reorganized security controls in RS-015 to cyber threats on NPPs. Through this work, the cyber threat that each security control can prevent was confirmed, and the effectiveness of several strategies for implementing the security controls were compared.This study will be a useful reference for utilities or researchers who cannot use design basis threat (DBT) directly and be helpful when introducing security controls to NPPs that do not have actual security functions.

It is reported that about 20% of accidents at nuclear power plants in Korea and abroad are caused by human error. One of the main factors contributing to human error is fatigue, so it is necessary to prevent human errors that may occur when the task is performed in an improper state by grasping the status of the operator in advance. In this study, we propose a method of evaluating operator's fitness-for-duty (FFD) using various parameters including eye movement data, subjective fatigue ratings, and operator's performance. Parameters for evaluating FFD were selected through a literature survey. We performed experiments that test subjects who felt various levels of fatigue monitor information of indicators and diagnose a system malfunction. In order to find meaningful characteristics in measured data consisting of various parameters, hierarchical clustering analysis, an unsupervised machine-learning technique, is used. The characteristics of each cluster were analyzed; fitness-for-duty of each cluster was evaluated. The appropriateness of the number of clusters obtained through clustering analysis was evaluated using both the Elbow and Silhouette methods. Finally, it was statistically shown that the suggested methodology for evaluating FFD does not generate additional fatigue in subjects. Relevance to industry: The methodology for evaluating an operator's fitness for duty in advance is proposed, and it can prevent human errors that might be caused by inappropriate condition in nuclear industries. Keywords: Fatigue, Eye tracking, Fitness for duty (FFD), Clustering analysis

Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) are physically isolated from external networks and have different operational environments than conventional information technology (IT) systems. Accordingly, NPPs were regarded as safe from external cyber-attacks. However, it was later determined that isolated networks are not safe from cyber-attacks. Malicious data injection attacks on Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) deployed in the safety system of NPPs are critical to nuclear facilities, as they were in the Stuxnet attack. It is necessary to monitor the integrity of PLC data and protect the PLCs from cyber threats such as modification of deployed logic or setpoints. To address this problem, this paper proposes a novel system for monitoring data integrity of PLCs using blockchain technologies. Considering the NPP environment, we developed a private blockchain system to monitor the data integrity of PLCs. The new concept that is Proof of Monitoring (PoM) for data integrity of PLCs was proposed to overcome the limitation for applying the private blockchain to the cybersecurity of NPPs. Additionally, we developed an integrity monitoring system for the Reactor Protection System (RPS)-a safety system in NPPs-using the developed blockchain. It can detect cyber-attacks (such as false code injection attacks on PLCs) and monitor which PLC integrity has been compromised in real-time. A validation experiment using a false data injection attack on PLCs was performed on the developed system, and the results confirmed that the developed system successfully monitored the modification of data in the PLCs.

To assess the availability of a nuclear power plant’s dynamic systems, it is necessary to consider the impact of dynamic interactions, such as components, software, and operating processes. However, there is currently no simple, easy-to-use tool for assessing the availability of these dynamic systems. The existing method, such as Markov chains, derives an accurate solution but has difficulty in modeling the system. When using conventional fault trees, the reliability of a system with dynamic characteristics cannot be evaluated accurately because the fault trees consider reliability of a specific operating configuration of the system. The dynamic reliability graph with general gates (DRGGG) allows an intuitive modeling similar to the actual system configuration, which can reduce the human errors that can occur during modeling of the target system. However, because the current DRGGG is able to evaluate the dynamic system in terms of only reliability without repair, a new evaluation method that can calculate the availability of the dynamic system with repair is proposed through this study. The proposed method extends the DRGGG by adding the repair condition to the dynamic gates. As a result of comparing the proposed method with Markov chains regarding a simple verification model, it is confirmed that the quantified value converges to the solution. Keywords: Dynamic system availability, Reliability graph with general gates, Extended dynamic gates

To easily understand and systematically express the behaviors of the industrial systems, various system modeling techniques have been developed. Particularly, the importance of system modeling has been greatly emphasized in recent years since modern industrial systems have become larger and more complex.Multilevel flow modeling (MFM) is one of the qualitative modeling techniques, applied for the representation and reasoning of target system characteristics and phenomena. MFM can be applied to industrial systems without additional domain-specific assumptions or detailed knowledge, and qualitative reasoning regarding event causes and consequences can be conducted with high speed and fidelity.However, current MFM techniques have a limitation, i.e., the dynamic features of a target system are not considered because time-related concepts are not involved. The applicability of MFM has been restricted since time-related information is essential for the modeling of dynamic systems. Specifically, the results from the reasoning processes include relatively less information because they did not utilize time-related data.In this article, the concepts of time-to-detect and time-to-effect were adopted from the system failure model to incorporate time-related issues into MFM, and a methodology for enhancing MFM-based reasoning with time-series data was suggested. Keywords: Multilevel Flow Modeling, Time-series Data, Time-to-Detect, Time-to-Effect

The safety of nuclear power plants is analyzed by a probabilistic risk assessment, and the fault tree analysis is the most widely used method for a risk assessment with the event tree analysis. One of the well-known disadvantages of the fault tree is that drawing a fault tree for a complex system is a very cumbersome task. Thus, several graphical modeling methods have been proposed for the convenient and intuitive modeling of complex systems. In this paper, the reliability graph with general gates (RGGG) method, one of the intuitive graphical modeling methods based on Bayesian networks, is improved for the reliability analyses of dynamic systems that have various operation modes with time. A reliability matrix is proposed and it is explained how to utilize the reliability matrix in the RGGG for various cases of operation mode changes. The proposed RGGG with a reliability matrix provides a convenient and intuitive modeling of various operation modes of complex systems, and can also be utilized with dynamic nodes that analyze the failure sequences of subcomponents. The combinatorial use of a reliability matrix with dynamic nodes is illustrated through an application to a shutdown cooling system in a nuclear power plant.

Environments in nuclear power plants (NPPs) are changing as the design of instrumentation and control systems for NPPs is rapidly moving toward fully digital instrumentation and control, and modern computer techniques are gradually introduced into main control rooms (MCRs). Within the context of these environmental changes, the level of performance of operators in a digital MCR is a major concern. Situation awareness (SA), which is used within human factors research to explain to what extent operators of safety-critical systems know what is transpiring in the system and the environment, is considered a prerequisite factor to guarantee the safe operation of NPPs. However, the safe operation of NPPs can be guaranteed through a team effort. In this regard, the operating team's SA in a conventional and digital MCR should be measured in order to assess whether the new design features implemented in a digital MCR affect this parameter. This paper explains the team SA measurement method used in this study and the results of applying this measurement method to operating teams in different MCR environments. The paper also discusses several empirical lessons learned from the results.

Sometimes, we need or try to figure out somebody's thoughts from his or her behaviors such as eye movement, facial expression, gestures, and motions. In safety-critical and complex systems such as nuclear power plants, the inference of operators' thoughts (understanding or diagnosis of a current situation) might provide a lot of opportunities for useful applications, such as development of an improved operator training program, a new type of operator support system, and human performance measures for human factor validation. In this experimental study, a novel method for inference of an operator's thoughts from his or her eye movement data is proposed and evaluated with a nuclear power plant simulator. In the experiments, about 80% of operators' thoughts can be inferred correctly using the proposed method.

Human capabilities, such as technical/nontechnical skills, have begun to be recognized as crucial factors for nuclear safety. One of the most common ways to improve human capabilities in general is training. The nuclear industry has constantly developed and used training as a tool to increase plant efficiency and safety. An integrated training framework was suggested for one of those efforts, especially during simulation training sessions of nuclear power plant operation teams. The developed training evaluation methods are based on measuring the levels of situation awareness of teams in terms of the level of shared confidence and consensus as well as the accuracy of team situation awareness. Verification of the developed methods was conducted by analyzing the training data of real nuclear power plant operation teams. The teams that achieved higher level of shared confidence showed better performance in solving problem situations when coupled with high consensus index values. The accuracy of nuclear power plant operation teams' situation awareness was approximately the same or showed a similar trend as that of senior reactor operators' situation awareness calculated by a situation awareness accuracy index (SAAI). Teams that had higher SAAI values performed better and faster than those that had lower SAAI values.

If a transient occurs in a nuclear power plant (NPP), operators will try to protect the NPP by estimating the kind of abnormality and mitigating it based on recommended procedures. Similarly, operators take actions based on severe accident management guidelines when there is the possibility of a severe accident occurrence in an NPP. In any such situation, information about the occurrence time of severe accident-related events can be very important to operators to set up severe accident management strategies. Therefore, support systems that can quickly provide this kind of information will be very useful when operators try to manage severe accidents. In this research, the occurrence times of several events that could happen during a severe accident were predicted using support vector machines with short time variations of plant status variables inputs. For the preliminary step, the break location and size of a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) were identified. Training and testing data sets were obtained using the MAAP5 code. The results show that the proposed algorithm can correctly classify the break location of the LOCA and can estimate the break size of the LOCA very accurately. In addition, the occurrence times of severe accident major events were predicted under various severe accident paths, with reasonable error. With these results, it is expected that it will be possible to apply the proposed algorithm to real NPPs because the algorithm uses only the early phase data after the reactor SCRAM, which can be obtained accurately for accident simulations.

This paper aims to give an overview of the methods to inherently prevent human errors and to effectively mitigate the consequences of such errors by securing defense-in-depth during plant management through the advanced man-machine interface system (MMIS). It is needless to stress the significance of human error reduction during an accident in nuclear power plants (NPPs). Unexpected shutdowns caused by human errors not only threaten nuclear safety but also make public acceptance of nuclear power extremely lower. We have to recognize there must be the possibility of human errors occurring since humans are not essentially perfect particularly under stressful conditions. However, we have the opportunity to improve such a situation through advanced information and communication technologies on the basis of lessons learned from our experiences. As important lessons, authors explained key issues associated with automation, man-machine interface, operator support systems, and procedures. Upon this investigation, we outlined the concept and technical factors to develop advanced automation, operation and maintenance support systems, and computer-based procedures using wired/wireless technology. It should be noted that the ultimate responsibility of nuclear safety obviously belongs to humans not to machines. Therefore, safety culture including education and training, which is a kind of organizational factor, should be emphasized as well. In regard to safety culture for human error reduction, several issues that we are facing these days were described. We expect the ideas of the advanced MMIS proposed in this paper to lead in the future direction of related researches and finally supplement the safety of NPPs.