The key role of advanced man-machine systems for future nuclear power plants

Starting from a brief outline of the present status and performance capability of I and C in nuclear power plants, the consequences with respect to the degree of automation and the increasing amount of information in the control room (especially during plant disturbances) are addressed. As a result of these consequences more and more computer aided automation and information systems will be introduced which allow for controls meeting the requirements of optimal process guidance and of information adapted to the process in an appreciably better way. The technological prerequisites to achieve these requirements are available; in most cases they provide significantly more possibilities than are actually needed. Therefore care must be taken to achieve solutions which take advantage of the new technologies, but still incorporate the vast experience gained with traditional systems. In this context one of the most urgent problems is the adaptation of the information to the needs of symptom oriented procedures which play an important role of coping with very unlikely yet not impossible 'beyond design basis accidents'. In all cases where complex situations have to be made transparent to the operator, the advanced information systems show their merits. This holds for the observation of the state of automatic devices and for the understanding of not anticipated process behaviour as well. Especially the early fault detection methods will gain considerably, because the potential of computer aided systems will help to provide the surveillance results, e.g. concerning the vibrational behaviour of structural components, in a way easily understood by the operating personnel. Recent control room designs already make use to a large extent of the new information features, but still represent solutions relying considerably on conventional means of information. Future developments aim at enhancing the diagnostic and prognostic ability of information systems and trying to utilize knowledge based systems with well designed dialogue capabilities in order to provide optimal assistance to the operator in complex and/or abnormal situations. (author). 26 refs, 7 figs