Ecological interface design for a power plant feedwater subsystem

Virtually every major vendor of nuclear power plants (NPPs) is currently working on the design of advanced control rooms for their next generation of plants. Ecological interface design (EID) is a theoretical framework that has been developed to provide guidance in the design of these advanced control rooms. Previous research has applied and evaluated EID in the context of a small-scale, but representative, thermal-hydraulic process simulation. The purpose of this research was to apply the principles of EID to a larger-scale system that is more representative of the complexity of a NPP. A power plant feedwater subsystem was selected as the focus of the study. This paper briefly discusses the principles of EID, describes the design of an EID interface for a power plant feedwater subsystem, and identifies some lessons learned. The main findings of this study are: (1) a proof of concept showing that the principles of EID can be meaningfully applied to a larger-scale design problem representative of those found in the nuclear industry, (2) EID needs to be supplemented by more specific interface design principles, and (3) it is possible to effectively integrate EID with these other design principles. Therefore, EID seems to be a viable candidate for the design of advanced computer interfaces for NPPs.