Re: [cdn-nucl-l] Ottawa Citizen letter on CNSC anti-nuclear bias (Stewart Peterson)

["Stewart Peterson" <issues@niof.org>]

Ah--not being a nuclear engineer, I guess I kinda assumed there was a piece 
of software that, given materials and a 3D diagram with dimensions, would 
tell you what would happen under each possible condition (if this part moves 
this far in this direction, this happens to coolant flow, which does this to 
reactivity, which feeds back into coolant flow...). Units and other things 
like that could be standardized fairly easily--if a fuel rod is given as 9 
in instead of 9 mm thick, that would immediately be apparent to a 
program--ADP would imply compatible authoring software. And yes, people 
would still have to interpret the result, but if the issue is calculating 
probabilities of events, why have a person do what a computer can, easier, 
cheaper, and better?

Is writing a program like that (i.e., generalized reactor/thermalhydraulics 
analysis software) impossible, unfeasible, or just not done yet?

-Stewart Peterson


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "WILLIAMS Brent(B) - BRUCE POWER" <Brent.Williams@brucepower.com>
To: <cdn-nucl-l@mailman1.cis.McMaster.CA>
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 11:28 AM
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] RE: Ottawa Citizen letter on CNSC anti-nuclear bias 
(Stewart Peterson)


>
>
> I seem to recall that a number of years ago, a Mars probe was lost
> because a programming team mixed up imperial and metric units.
>
> Another challenge with automated design analysis is that each design
> would have to have its own analysis software.
>
> As we move towards standardization, this issue dilutes; however, each
> station will still have incremental design improvements that would have
> to be dealt with. In addition, substantive automation could have the
> outcome of stifling designs in various polities.
>
> One nice thing about people is that we have the potential to understand
> context and the limits of rules.
>
> Brent Williams
> Vice President
> North American Young Generation in Nuclear
>
>
>>Message: 2
>>From: "Stewart Peterson" <issues@niof.org>
>>To: "Canadian Nuclear Discussion List"
> <CDN-NUCL-@mailman1.cis.mcmaster.ca>
>>Subject: Re: [cdn-nucl-l] Ottawa Citizen letter on CNSC anti-nuclear
> bias
>>Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2008 06:48:42 -0600
>>
>>I don't know about not having any sort of a regulatory agency, but if
> most
>>of the effort is in ensuring that a system has certain attributes
> within a
>>known range, couldn't a significant amount of it be computerized? Is it
>>more complex than replacing someone looking at a screen or piece of
> paper >and verifying that a number is within a range with a computer
> that can do >the same thing 10,000x faster and more reliably?
>>
>>I guess I don't understand why potential reactor designs couldn't be
>>evaluated by a computer program if the issue is a given low probability
> of
>>radioactive release over a given limit, and if nuclear power plants are
>
>>already extensively instrumented, why couldn't the systems be connected
> to >a computer that has been programmed with the acceptable ranges for
> each
>>instrument and corrective actions to take if each instrument goes out
> of
>>range which way and to what degree, and what to do if a particular
> event is
>>combined with other events? Are the new plants being designed like
> this? If
>>so, is the CNSC making the changes to their procedures necessary to
>>regulate
>>them?
>>
>>-Stewart Peterson
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