Computerized Operation Support Systems of LABIHS Simulator

The automation of certain tasks in a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) control room is expected to result in reduced operators’ mental workload, which may induce other benefits such as enhanced situation awareness and improved system performance. The final goal should be higher level of operational safety. Thus, recent works are increasingly assessing automation. The LABIHS compact NPP simulator, though, still operates under strictly manual printed hard-copy procedures, despite of the fact that the simulator incorporates several advancements in design of digitalized Human–System Interfaces (HSIs). This work presents the development, implementation and integration of selected components to achieve a desired level of computerized/automated operation of the LABIHS compact NPP simulator. Specifically, we discuss three components: (i) Computerized Procedures, (ii) Automatic Plant Mode Detection, and (iii) Automatic Alarm Filtering. Each one of these components has to be carefully designed/integrated so that one can avoid the undesired effects of some known implementations of automated systems on NPP, such as the reduction in the operator's system awareness, an increase in monitoring workload, and the degradation in manual skills, which could lead to automation-induced system failures.