Pre-validation of anew interactive operating panel system for a nuclear power plant training simulator

The paper presents the results of validation testing of a new interactive operating panel system, ""Virtual panels," for a training simulator of Fortum Loviisa nuclear power plant. The Virtual panels are realized as a part of the turbine side human system interface (HSI)by introducing a set of touch sensitive wall-mounted displays for the control room (CR) of the training simulator. The implementation of the touch based technology originates from the on-going automation modernization in which the CR HSIs are also renewed. In the training simulator the Virtual panels are used for simulating the conventional operating panels used in the main CR for the process control. The Virtual panel system was assessed with two different kinds of test settings: 1) interface element level by testing simple operation sequences (e.g. opening a valve), and 2) testing how the Virtual panels function as a part of the turbine side HSIs by running a more comprehensive scenario (loss of BB-busbar). The results of the evaluation showed that the functionality of the Virtual panel system was quite high, and the operators could well identify the HSI components of the renewed turbine side. According to the Systems Usability survey results, the overall usability of the panel system was also relatively good. In total, twenty-three deviations between conventional panels and Mrtual panels were identified, some of which may have implications for operator training and CR validation testing.