Nuclear Plant Terminology

• In a Central Control Room (CCR) there are three main roles. Firstly Shift Manager - has a longer term focus on maintaining plans, training and compliance. In an incident, the shift manager has full control of the station. Control Room Supervisor - responsible for the technical side (including MEL submission) and for the Desk Engineers. Desk Engineers - the main point of contact for a Shift Trader and are responsible for the detailed management of the reactor
• Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) - seeks to keep up and improve safety standards through licensing powers and assessing safety cases.
• Action Conditions - stations operate to a set of Tech Specs which are practical expansions of the safety case. If any conditions are breached then they are required to resolve the Action Condition or shutdown. Action Condition time range from 4 hours to 7 days. 
• Operational Decision Meeting (ODM) - to discuss and agree the plan of action when a station is facing an unusual operating issue.
• Engineering Change (EC) - is used to approve a plant modification.
• Justification for Continues Operation (JFCO) - can be raised by a station to approve the station continuing to operate with a fault on the grounds that it does not offer any increased threat and will be repaired in an upcoming outage. 

Each CCR operates to their own shift pattern and handovers. Most sites work 8 hours shifts during the week and 12 hour shifts at weekends.

Times are printed on the shift desk.

It is best practice to avoid ringing the CCR within 30 minites prior and 1 hour after the shift handover times unless necessary.

The main focus for the CCR is on safety. Delivering MW output is secondary. This can conflict with a Shift trader's main focus but the ONR does not expect any commerical pressure to be placed on the CCR.

Each nuclear station has on site generation from either Diesel (about 6MW) or Gas Turbines (about 17MW) . The stations managed when these need to be tested. The CCR normally contacts the shift desk on the day of the test run to discuss the STT of a time for the test run. When discussing a time, due to the Centrica offtake agreement, the STT must only advise based on a view of market prices and must not factor in the company's position.

Most test runs last approx 30 mins and the CCR are recommended to start the test run 15 mins to the hour or half hour to spread the volume across two settlement periods. The PN does not need to be increased.