The design and implementation of an operator's performance support system

The objective of the current OPUS (Operator/User Support) System project is to produce an intelligent performance support system for the operators and maintainers of the Central Sampling and Condenser Leak Detection System at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station in New Brunswick. The design of the OPUS system addresses issues that have been raised in recent review and takes advantage of the experience that has been gained in the area of operator support systems over recent years. The fundamental design revolves around a user-centred concept since this will help to address one of the major shortcomings of past designs which is lack of operator acceptance. Primarily the system is an active one in the sense that it reacts to changes in input data and undertakes circumstance sensitive tasks. The model will eventually run on different platforms, for both performance and geographical reasons, and is multi-tasking in order to realize the inherent parallelism that is present. The contrived modularity is extremely germane to minimising code maintenance requirements. Additionally it eases the task of code verification and provides for incremental growth and flexibility. Asynchronous communications are used to provide flexibility and to handle the parallelism while to ensure stability periodic synchronous communication is imposed. 7 refs., 4 figs