An experimental investigation of the effects of alarm processing and display on operator performance

Conference · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1998

OSTI ID:305914

O`Hara, J; Brown, W ^[1]; Hallbert, B; Skraaning, G ^[2]; Wachtel, J; Persensky, J ^[3]

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1. Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States). Dept. of Advanced Technology
2. Halden Reactor Project (Norway)
3. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research

This paper describes a research program sponsored by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to address the human factors engineering (HFE) aspects of nuclear power plant alarm systems. The overall objective of the program is to develop HFE review guidance for advanced alarm systems. As part of this program, guidance has been developed based on a broad base of technical and research literature. In the course of guidance development, aspects of alarm system design for which the technical basis was insufficient to support complete guidance development were identified. The primary purpose of the research reported in this paper was to evaluate the effects of three of these alarm system design characteristics on operator performance in order to contribute to the understanding of potential safety issues and to provide data to support the development of design review guidance in these areas. Three alarm system design characteristics studied were (1) alarm processing (degree of alarm reduction), (2) alarm availability (dynamic prioritization and suppression), and (3) alarm display (a dedicated tile format, a mixed tile and message list format, and a format in which alarm information is integrated into the process displays). A secondary purpose was to provide confirmatory evidence of selected alarm system guidance developed in an earlier phase of the project. The alarm characteristics were combined into eight separate experimental conditions. Six, two-person crews of professional nuclear power plant operators participated in the study. Following training, each crew completed 16 test trials which consisted of two trials in each of the eight experimental conditions (one with a low-complexity scenario and one with a high-complexity scenario). Measures of process performance, operator task performance, situation awareness, and workload were obtained. In addition, operator opinions and evaluations of the alarm processing and display conditions were collected. No deficient performance was observed in any of the experimental conditions, providing confirmatory support for many design review guidelines. The operators identified numerous strengths and weaknesses associated with individual alarm design characteristics.

• Research Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, Washington, DC (United States); Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 305914
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CP--0162-Vol.2; CONF-9710101--Vol.2; ON: TI98007504
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
ALARM SYSTEMS
DESIGN
DISPLAY DEVICES
HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING
MAN-MACHINE SYSTEMS
PERFORMANCE
REACTOR OPERATORS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
WATER COOLED REACTORS