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100% touchscreen nuke control room - improvement or abomination?
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AaronD:
Provided that:

* It runs on a dedicated system that is designed from the ground up with rock-solid reliability at the forefront and NOT a silicon valley playground!*
* It actively monitors the system and automatically accounts for any faults that might occur, both in well-engineered (not silicon valley) software and in hardware.
* It uses a fuel that is inherently safe anyway, that naturally shuts down when it gets hot instead of thermal runaway.**Then a touchscreen on/off button surrounded by pretty pictures might be just fine as the only human interface.

---

*Microsoft and Apple are both strictly forbidden, along with several others that share the "devs' playground" mindset.

**Yes, those fuels exist; they're just not as energy-dense as what we're using today, and so the middle managers don't like them.
AaronD:

--- Quote from: langwadt on August 17, 2021, 12:18:54 am ---
--- Quote from: Circlotron on August 17, 2021, 12:05:23 am ---AFAIK nobody does car* braking by wire, so why do they think this is a good idea?

*Trailers sometimes.

--- End quote ---

afaiu braking and steering are required to be a mechanical connection

--- End quote ---

Actually, I believe that there *are* 100% drive-by-wire cars now.  (in addition to the autonomous ones that obviously must be DBW)  Again, THIS IS NOT WINDOWS!  It's produced by real engineers, not script-kiddies.
trophosphere:
The ventilators I use in the hospital are largely touchscreen operated. That being said, I think for specific critical applications if you have to operate something without looking at it and instead rely on tactile feedback then having mechanical controls would probably be better.
AlbertL:
m98 - Where are those plants located - in Germany?  When were they built?

The most recently-built nuclear plant in the US is Watts Bar Unit 2 in Tennessee, which began service in 2016.  But the control room looks like those in much older plants - discrete switches, lights and instruments, with the screens apparently for display only. (photos here: https://www.tva.com/newsroom/watts-bar-2-project/watts-bar-unit-2-timeline. 
NiHaoMike:
Aren't touchscreens common in modern aircraft? The important controls still use physical knobs and switches, however.
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