Developing a measurement tool for assessing situation awareness of operator in the MCR of SMR

Abstract

Automated action is one of the main features in the modern main control room (MCR) of nuclear power plants including small and modular reactors (SMR). The automated systems can increase the safe operation of the plants and can make it easier for operators to monitor and control the plant. However, it can reduce the awareness of operators about the current status of the plant. This paper discusses a tool to measure the situation awareness of operators of MCR of Nuscale, one of SMR type reactor. The tool is developed based on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) that measures operator workload that affects the situation awareness based on the 6 subscales: mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, frustration, effort, and performance. The types of workloads of the operator are investigated and some questioners related to the 6 subscales are made. The result shows that the tool is suitable for assessing the situation awareness of the operator of MCR of Nuscale.