Analysis of operators' performance under emergencies using a training simulator of the nuclear power plant

Abstract

Abstract It is well known that there are many factors that affect the reliability of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Among them, human reliability has been considered one of the most important factors. Thus, not only in order to quantify human reliability but also to identify main causes that can degrade human reliability, various kinds of human reliability analysis (HRA) methods have been suggested and utilized in many countries. However, to perform HRA more appropriately, it is necessary to collect plant-specific or domain-specific human performance data: especially for emergencies: because they can be used to generate requisite information for HRA. From this point of view, simulator studies under emergencies may be considered important sources for obtaining human performance data. In this study, the performance data of operating crews in coping with emergencies of the reference NPP have been collected and analyzed to develop human performance database (HPDB). Since the number of collected records is 112, it can be said that extracted/analyzed results included in HPDB are statistically meaningful. Therefore, HPDB can be used not only for HRA input data but also for multiple purposes such as improving emergency operating procedures and developing advanced HRA methods.