Stress emergency situations

A selection of the recommendations which were produced are presented below and cover most aspects of the blowdown operation. However, their common underlying theme is to provide optimum decision support in a high stress, high workload emergency situation such as a significant fire or gas release. 

Enhancing reactor safety due to elimination of coolant boiling (coolant boiling point is 1670 C, boiling point of sodium is 870 C) in the most heat stressed fuel subassemblies (FSA) even in the case of the severest accidents. It makes the realization of coolant positive void reactivity effect practically impossible. Besides that, the use of chemically inert LBC eliminates occurrence of explosions and fires if there is coolant contacting with air and water which is possible in emergency situations ... 

Clothing is the first line of defense for the wearer, not only in an emergency situation, bnt also in their daily routine. Occupational hazards determine the extent of protection that clothing has to offer. Protective textile materials can be broadly classified as impermeable, semipermeable, air permeable, and selectively permeable materials. Although the majority of commercially available protective textiles available for end users consist of impermeable clothing, protection offered by impermeable clothing often comes at the expense of breathability and other comfort characteristics of textiles. This eventually results in high levels of discomfort and extreme physical stress for the wearer. 

Creates an arrangement of operating controls and other devices that considerably increase reaction time in emergency situations or is quite conducive to errors Places unreasonable stress on operators... 

Plants are particularly vulnerable to human error during shutdowns for repair and maintenance. Tfiis is partly due to the higher level of direct human involvement with the plant, when errors are likely if procedures and supervisory systems are poor. Errors also occur during high stress situations such as emergency shutdowns. Workers need to be trained in how to handle these situations so that less stress is experienced (see Chapter 3). 

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