Skip to content

Action class: manual Safety Injection actuation

Safety Injection is normally an automatic ESF actuation triggered by low pressurizer pressure, high containment pressure, or low steam-line pressure. Manual actuation is the operator backup when:

  • Automatic actuation fails to occur despite the trigger conditions.
  • Symptoms warrant SI but no automatic trigger has fired (e.g. a small break that depressurises below the SI threshold slowly).
  • The procedure specifically directs manual actuation as a conservative response (E-0 step 4, RNO branch).

Typical execution time

  • Cognitive: 5–15 s once the operator recognises the need (faster than RCP-trip because the decision is binary).
  • Motor: ~3 s — single armed pushbutton on the main control board.

Error modes

  • Slip — wrong panel switch (SI button is co-located with other ESF manual actuation switches: Phase A isolation, Phase B isolation, containment spray). Verified by three-way communication.
  • Omission — failure to manually actuate when automatic actuation didn't occur, because the operator assumed automatic was working. Performance-shaping factor: trust in automation.
  • Premature reset — actuated SI is reset before the procedure step says to. SI auto-reset is locked out by design; manual reset requires a deliberate procedure-driven action.

Procedures that invoke

  • E-0 step 4 (check-si-status) — the canonical entry point.
  • ES-0.2 — SI termination procedure (re-actuation if termination criteria stop being met).
  • FR-C.1 — manual SI as part of degraded-core-cooling response.

Performance-shaping factors

factor weight rationale
time pressure medium seconds matter but the action is fast and the team has 5 minutes
training quality high simulator-rehearsed every cycle
trust in automation high operators sometimes over-trust automatic actuation
HSI high the SI manual switch is a single armed pushbutton — visible, distinct, deliberate
stress medium this is one of many concurrent diagnostics during E-0

Cross-reference