Abstract: To this date, strategies aiming at a safe operation of nuclear power plants focused mainly on the prevention of technological breakdowns and, more recently, on the human attitudes and behaviors. New incidents and challenges to safety, however, motivated the nuclear community to look for a new safety approach. The solution became a strong focus on knowledge management and associated theories and sciences as information theories, artificial intelligence, informatics, etc. In all of these, the fundamental role is played by a category of information. This work reviews a number of information interpretations and theories, among which of great relevance are those capturing the fundamental role information plays as a mean to exercise control on the state of a system, those analyzing information communication between agents involved in safety-related activities, and, finally, those which explore the link between information and the limits of our knowledge. Quantitative measures of information content and value are introduced. Completeness, accuracy, and clarity are presented as attributes of information acquired by the receiver. To conclude, suggestions are offered on how to use interpretations and mathematical tools developed within the information theories to maintain and improve safety of nuclear power plants.
Link:
APPLICATION OF INFORMATION THEORIES TO SAFETY OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
Elena Ilina
http://foibg.com/ijita/vol16/IJITA16-1-p05.pdf