September-October 2017 NPJ

32 NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2017 modern systems? It’s possible to allocate functions more to automation with newer technology, simply because newer technology has more capabilities. We can all think about examples of that. It’s also possible, though, to over-allocate, and there are some examples of that in other industries. For example, in the aviation industry, there are some popular examples of pilots saying to one another in the cockpit, “what’s it doing?” What they’re saying to one another is what the automated system is doing. One of the topics that we take up when we do the redesign of the existing control room is how do you allocate sensibly and make sure that there’s a role for the operating crew or the operator, depending upon the type of plant, that leaves the operator with a role that they understand, that makes sense in terms of their capabilities, and is suitable from a safety and reliability perspective. The other part of the function allocation issue that arises as a result of these efforts, is ensuring that the operator understands what the automation is doing, and will be able to intervene if automation ever Seamless Digital... ( Continued from page 31) fails. Those are very important questions to consider, and there are other questions as well, too, but those are just a few of the important questions that we consider when we do these sorts of function allocation studies. 4. How are you implementing data analytics and big data applications in control room design? I would characterize our research in the area of analytics as being in the initial stages, and I’m only speaking for the research in our pathway. That doesn’t mean to say that there aren’t other projects that are going on that are further ahead in developing big data science or developing analytic tools and models that will enhance and create capabilities for big data science that can be deployed by nuclear power plants, but at this stage, we’ve been doing some initial research together with some nuclear utilities to look into what are the potential applications of data analytics for nuclear power plants, what are the potential uses, how big are the potential return on investments, and what are the areas that appear to be most fruitful for exploration. We are planning on having a workshop in September 2017 at a university to bring together some private companies who work in data analytics, as well as several utilities and universities who are also conducting research in these areas, to facilitate a discussion, conduct some brainstorming, identify potential topics for research and share some initial lessons learned. But like I said, we’re really in the initial stages of research in big data analytics. 5. Which universities are active in the type of work which your group is doing? It’s potentially any university that’s interested in I&C topic. There are a lot of universities that are active in instrumentation and controls, because it touches on anything from any universities that are developing sensors, communications technology, wireless technology, power harvesting technologies. The technologies in the area that we work with are advancing rapidly. All you have to do is to pick up a current issue of IEEE Spectrum, and you can’t help but look through it and find at least five new technologies every month, and say wow, that’s going to change the way we’re doing things in the future. It’s happening everywhere. 6. What are the few top innovations that you have implemented recently or you are planning on implementing? I thinksomeof thebiggest innovations that we’re focusing on are really technology related as well as business Nuclear Plant Journal Advertiser Web Directory AREVA Inc. www.us.areva.com Canadian Nuclear Laboratories www.cnl.ca Fibrwrap Construction Services, Inc. www.aegion.com/ infrastructure-solutions GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy nuclear.gepower.com HydroAire Service, Inc. www.hydroinc.com InfoSight Corporation www.infosight.com Invensys / Schneider Electric www.invensys.com OTEK Corporation www.otekcorp.com Remote Ocean Systems www.rosys.com Tecnatom, s.a. www.tecnatom.es Thermo Scientific- CIDTEC www.thermo.com/cidtec Westinghouse Electric Company LLC www.westinghousenuclear. com