Baseline Evaluations to Support Control Room Modernization at Nuclear Power Plants
For any major control room modernization activity at a commercial nuclear power plant (NPP) in the U.S., a utility should carefully follow the four phases prescribed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in NUREG-0711, Human Factors Engineering Program Review Model. These four phases include Planning and Analysis, Design, Verification and Validation, and Implementation and Operation. While NUREG-0711 is a useful guideline, it is written primarily from the perspective of regulatory review, and it therefore does not provide a nuanced account of many of the steps the utility might undertake as part of control room modernization. The guideline is largely summative—intended to catalog final products—rather than formative—intended to guide the overall modernization process. In this paper, we highlight two crucial formative sub-elements of the Planning and Analysis phase specific to control room modernization that are not covered in NUREG-0711. These two sub-elements are the usability and ergonomics baseline evaluations. A baseline evaluation entails evaluating the system as-built and currently in use. The usability baseline evaluation provides key insights into operator performance using the control system currently in place. The ergonomics baseline evaluation identifies possible deficiencies in the physical configuration of the control system. Both baseline evaluations feed into the design of the replacement system and subsequent summative benchmarking activities that help ensure that control room modernization represents a successful evolution of the control system.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1214759
- Report Number(s):
- INL/CON-15-34403; TRN: US1600013
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ANS NPIC-HMIT,Charlotte, NC,02/23/2015,02/26/2015
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
CONTROL ROOMS
EVALUATION
CONTROL SYSTEMS
DESIGN
PLANNING
BENCHMARKS
CONFIGURATION
EVOLUTION
PERFORMANCE
OPTIMIZATION
REACTOR OPERATORS
baseline evaluation
control room modernization
ergonomics
NUREG-0711
usability