The Design of Human–Machine Interface for Accident Support in Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

As feedback from Three Mile Island No. 2, a large amount of human–machine interface (HMI) design has been proposed to support operators during accidents by presenting information on plant status, some of which is implemented in commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs). However, it has not yet been discussed what role HMI should play under conditions where operators must take action as instructed under emergency operating procedure. Regarding this principal issue, an HMI design is proposed together with specific screen images. The advantage of this design is based on the involvement of an ex-operator in NPP in this paper. The participation of users in the design of HMI has been rare. Accordingly the proposed HMI is comprehensive for average operators and is expected to be acceptable for future implementation in commercial NPPs. The effectiveness of the proposed HMI has been examined in a small experiment.