Analysis of operator available time for responding to accident situations in a digitalized main control room

After the occurrence of an accident, operators’ correct understanding of the situation and timely responding actions are important in maintaining the safety of nuclear power plants. Depending on the operator available time, the situation awareness and hence whether the accident situation is properly managed or not can be determined. In this paper, the operator available times for several accident situations involving small break loss of coolant accident (SBLOCA), loss of feedwater (LOFW), excessive steam dump event (ESDE) are evaluated using a simulation code. The results of this analysis can be used as basis for estimating the operators’ failure probability in a digitalized main control room of a nuclear power plant.