Role of Human Factor in Energy Conservation: Case of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant

Humans are an integral part of power plants, ranging from construction to routine maintenance. Analysis of the presence and performance of the human factor can play an effective role in reducing and/or optimizing the use of energy resources. Therefore, in this research the investigation of the plant operator's presence direction in order to control a type of accident with the implementation of feed and bleed process was carried out. For this purpose, the performance management of the power plant operator in reducing energy consumption from a safety perspective has been investigated. Therefore, using relevant codes, a high-frequency accident simulation such as the total loss of power (Station Blackout), which includes both external and internal site power supplies, was performed for the Bushehr nuclear power plant and operator behavior during the feed and bleed process was analyzed in the accident control. The results showed that the operator's presence in accident management prevents severe accidents, also prevents the passage of thermohydraulic parameters such as primary circuit pressure from design criteria and prevents fuel temperature from melting. On the other hand, using the SPAR-H method to evaluate this performance, while maintaining power plant safety conditions, simultaneous safety assessment, human errors and the use of energy sources, will delay the decision to reduce energy consumption. Therefore, a combination of safety and reliability assessments using deterministic and probabilistic safety analyzes will provide a convincing result in the decision-making of energy resources consumption, which, given the complexity of safety and energy issues this research can have used in other areas, as an approach in other industries including aerospace, oil, gas and petrochemical as well as defense industries.