• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.249-256
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• 2010

For guaranteeing for security of nuclear power plant, ergonomic factors have been applied to design of main control room, core area for management and control of nuclear power plant, but design elements for performance of operators have been ignored. As the behaviors of operators are important for security of nuclear power plant, space design which makes them pleasant psychologically and makes them maintain attention on security equipments ceaselessly is required. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze space characteristics of main control rooms according to regulations of nuclear power plant and general guidelines of space design, and to offer basic data for designing of main control room which makes operators pleasant psychologically and physically. At first, theoretical issues related with design of main control room are reviewed and several premises of space are developed by abstracting design elements from common space and regulations of nuclear power plant and, then integrating each design elements interactively. In short, the improvement of system environment based on human-machine interface space has brought about perceptual, cognitive, and spatial changes and has realized next generation of main control rooms. And, differences and similarities between ordinary space and main control room, which ergonomic sizes and regulations are applied and is VDT environment based on LDP, are discussed in relation to 13 design elements and 17 space premise.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2023

Using the Kalman filtering technique, we propose a novel method for estimating the missing video frames to monitor the activities inside the control room of a nuclear power plant (NPP). The purpose of this study is to reinforce the existing security and safety procedures in the control room of an NPP. The NPP control room serves as the nervous system of the plant, with instrumentation and control systems used to monitor and control critical plant parameters. Because the safety and security of the NPP control room are critical, it must be monitored closely by security cameras in order to assess and reduce the onset of any incidents and accidents that could adversely impact the safety of the NPP. However, for a variety of technical and administrative reasons, continuous monitoring may be interrupted. Because of the interruption, one or more frames of the video may be distorted or missing, making it difficult to identify the activity during this time period. This could endanger overall safety. The demonstrated Kalman filter model estimates the value of the missing frame pixel-by-pixel using information from the frame that occurred in the video sequence before it and the frame that will occur in the video sequence after it. The results of the experiment provide evidence of the effectiveness of the algorithm.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.33-41
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• 2009

The analog or partly digital typed interface of main control room in nuclear power plant (NPP) is gradually being replaced to the totally digitalized interface suitable for the digital environment. SKN 3,4 Nuclear Power Plant is currently developed in such a way to employ advanced displays and controls such as computerized procedure system(CPS), large display panel(LDP), and Soft control. According to the developed design process, the main control room (MCR) of the SKN3,4 was aesthetically designed based on a design concept of the health and sustainability and technically evaluated with human factors guidelines, which somehow lack of the confidence on the evaluation for the rapidly changing digital environment. The suitable review guideline for the digitalized interface and the environment was developed such as the guideline for CPS with information displays on VDU. For the guideline development, tremendous guidelines and technical papers related to evaluation issues of digital environment has been collected, analyzed and transformed to electric database forms and then built on database management system, called Design Review Supporting System to retrieve the appropriate issues for the practical usage of evaluators-in-field.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.97-106
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• 2013

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the attributing factors influencing team performance. Background: Technically, it is necessary that operators adapt themselves to computerized and advanced techniques to operate the main control rooms safely in nuclear power plant in Korea. The more main control rooms are digitalized, the more important for operators to have high team performance it is. Method: This paper analyzes team process through literatures review and elicits team performance shaping factor. Especially, the objective of this research is to elicit communication using common team performance shaping factors. Results: This study has found communication through team performance shaping factors in Main Control Room of the SMART. Conclusion: This paper can offer a starting point for team communication, which can use team performance shaping factor framework that are emerging in these new nuclear power plant. Application: As a result, I expect that the evaluation communication for MCR operator's team performance will lead the operating techniques in nuclear power industry internationally.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.373-383
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• 2017

Objective: The aim of this study is to introduce an operator console design review system suitable for designing and evaluating consoles based on human factor guidelines for a digitalized main control room in an advanced nuclear power plant which has a requirement for anthropometric data usage. Background: The system interface of the main control room in a nuclear power plant has been getting digitalized and consists of various consoles with many information displays. Console operators often face human-computer interactive problems due to inappropriate console design stemming from the perceptual constraints of anthropometric data usage. Method: Computational models with a process of visual perception and variables of anthropometric data are used for designing and evaluating operator consoles suitable for human system interface guidelines, which are used in an advanced nuclear power plant. Results: From the computational model and simulation application, console dimensions and a designing test module, which would be used for designing suitable consoles with safety concerns in a nuclear power plant, have been introduced. Conclusion: This case study may influence employing a suitable design concept with various anthropometric data in many areas with safety concerns and may show a feasible solution to designing and evaluating the safety console dimensions. Application: The results of this study may be used for designing a control room with the human factors requiring a safe working environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.199-207
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• 2014

In this paper, to systematically assess the abandonment risk of main control room (MCR) fire, fire simulations with Fire Dynamics Simulator were performed and abandonment probabilities were estimated for the MCR bench-board fire of domestic reference nuclear power plant. The fire simulation scenarios performed in this study included propagating and non-propagating fires of the MCR bench-board, and the availability and unavailability of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVACS). The following results were obtained. First, temperature was the major abandonment impact factor for the MCR bench-board fire if the HVACS was available and optical density was that if the HVACS was unavailable. Second, the fire scenario contributing the MCR bench-board fire abandonment risk was identified to be only the propagating fire. Third, it was confirmed that the abandonment probability of the MCR bench-board fire for domestic reference nuclear power plant could be reduced by using the fire modeling.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.664-667
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• 2004

In nuclear power plant, the main control room(MCR) plays a leading and important role, so it is the core to have its design well operater-centered, both physically and cognitively. This paper especially analyzes focusing on lighting MCR environment and shows alternatives. It will lead to improve work efficiency and to care operator's sight. In conclusion, reducing operator's stress, fatigue and increasing safety, comfort.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.79-85
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• 2016

Serious electrical problems, such as shorts, ground faults, or circuits, often cause fire events in the fire proof zone of nuclear power plants. These would be directed to the loss of safe shutdown capabilities performed by safety-related systems and equipment. The fire event can be treated with the basic design principle that safety systems should maintain their functions with redundancy and independency. In the case of a cable fire in the main control room, operators cannot perform their mission properly and can misjudge the situation because of spurious operation, incorrect indication or instrument. These would deteriorate the plant capabilities of safety shutdown and result in disastrous conditions. Therefore, during a main control room fire, 5 minutes of operator action time is very important to operate the safety shutdown components. This paper describes the cable functional failure temperature criteria and conducted a cable functional failure time evaluation using Fire Dynamic Simulator to obtain the operator action time for a main control room fire.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.1-5
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• 2011

The purpose of the Environment Design (ED) for Main Control Room (MCR) of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is to provide and create an optimal working space to be free from physical, physiological and mental stress as well as environmental discomfort, based on the previous environment design experiences and to recommend the best ED including the color, the lighting and the interior design. Environment Design consists of three main areas: Human factor engineering design, Interior design with color design, and Lighting design. These design areas have been interactively cooperated in a way that each design specialist would share the objectives and concepts of the Environment Design for MCR. The specialists for Human Factors Engineering design had a corporative role in such a way to provide the guidelines for MCR design suitability of Interior and Lighting design considering the Human System Interface (HSI) safety concerns. This paper describes fruitful efforts to create the best fit for MCR ED among several design proposals with the design recommendations, impacts, and contributions to NPP environment.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2013

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate a trend of human error types observed in a series of verification and validation experiments for an Advanced Control Room(ACR) equipped with Lager Display Panel(LDP), Work Station Flat Panel Display(WS FPD), list type Alarm System(AS), Soft Control(SC) and Computerized Procedure System(CPS). Background: Operator behaviors in a fully computerized control room are quite different from those in a traditional hard-wired control room. Operators in an ACR all together monitor plant status and variables through their own interface system such as LDP and WS FPD, are notified of abnormal plant status through their own list type AS, control the plant through their own SC, and follow the structured procedure through their own CPS whereas operators in a traditional control room only separately do their duty directed by their supervisor. Especially the secondary task such as manipulating the user interface of ACR can be an extra burden to all the operators including the supervisor. Method: The Reason's human error classification method was applied to operators' behavioral data collected from a series of verification and validation experiments where operators showed their plant operational behaviors under a couple of harsh scenarios using the ACR simulator. Results: As operators accustomed to the new ACR system, knowledge or rule based mistakes appearing frequently in the early series of experiments decreased drastically in the latest stage of the series. Slip and lapse types of errors were observed throughout the series of experiments. Conclusion: Education and training can be one of the most important factors for the operators accustomed to the traditional control room to be adapted to the new system and to run the ACR successfully. Application: The results of this study implied that knowledge or rule based mistakes can be reduced by training and education but that lapse type errors might be reduced only through innovative improvement in human-system interface design or teamwork culture design including a new leadership style suitable for ACR.