Human System Simulation in Support of Human Performance Technical Basis at NPPs

Conference · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010

OSTI ID:993185

Gertman, David; Blanc, Katya Le; mecham, alan; phoenix, william; Tawfik, Magdy; Joe, Jeffrey

This paper focuses on strategies and progress toward establishing the Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL’s) Human Systems Simulator Laboratory at the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES), a consortium of Idaho State Universities. The INL is one of the National Laboratories of the US Department of Energy. One of the first planned applications for the Human Systems Simulator Laboratory is implementation of a dynamic nuclear power plant simulation (NPP) where studies of operator workload, situation awareness, performance and preference will be carried out in simulated control rooms including nuclear power plant control rooms. Simulation offers a means by which to review operational concepts, improve design practices and provide a technical basis for licensing decisions. In preparation for the next generation power plant and current government and industry efforts in support of light water reactor sustainability, human operators will be attached to a suite of physiological measurement instruments and, in combination with traditional Human Factors Measurement techniques, carry out control room tasks in simulated advanced digital and hybrid analog/digital control rooms. The current focus of the Human Systems Simulator Laboratory is building core competence in quantitative and qualitative measurements of situation awareness and workload. Of particular interest is whether introduction of digital systems including automated procedures has the potential to reduce workload and enhance safety while improving situation awareness or whether workload is merely shifted and situation awareness is modified in yet to be determined ways. Data analysis is carried out by engineers and scientists and includes measures of the physical and neurological correlates of human performance. The current approach supports a user-centered design philosophy (see ISO 13407 “Human Centered Design Process for Interactive Systems, 1999) wherein the context for task performance along with the requirements of the end-user are taken into account during the design process and the validity of design is determined through testing of real end users

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 993185
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-10-17875
• Conference Information: PSAM 10 Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management,Seattle Washington,06/07/2010,06/11/2010
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
CONTROL ROOMS
DATA ANALYSIS
DESIGN
DIGITAL SYSTEMS
ENGINEERS
HUMAN FACTORS
human in the loop
IMPLEMENTATION
LICENSING
MANAGEMENT
nuclear power plant
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
PERFORMANCE
POWER PLANTS
PROBABILISTIC ESTIMATION
RISK ASSESSMENT
SAFETY
simulation
SIMULATORS
situation awareness
TESTING
WATER
workload