Definition of human factor requirements in the invitation to tender and system specifications
- EDF SEPTEN, Service Etudes et Projets Thermiques et Nucleaires, 12-14, Avenue Dutrievoz, 69628 Villeurbanne Cedex (France)
For more than 20 years, EDF has led Human Factors (HF) studies in order to improve its plants, the interfaces used by operating crews in nuclear power plants, the prescriptive operating documents, the organization and the control of the NPPs... The experience feedback of these projects highlights the need for defining, as soon as possible in the projects, the HF requirements to take into account and to list them in the HSI Specifications addressed to the designer or to the supplier. Experience feedback shows that if these requirements (in terms of integration of the HF process in the project and the HF criteria for the design) are not clearly and precisely defined to the designer, the persons in charge of projects can encounter real difficulties for: 1) Defining the resources required to carry out the tests (usability tests during the design; verification and validation tests during or at the end of the design), 2) Plan the HF interventions and studies in the design schedule, 3) Refer to HF standards and requirements during the design phase, 4) Carry out modifications on the products designed before they are commissioned on site in case of differences between these products' design features and the HF requirements. This paper presents the solutions recommended by EDF to cope with these problems, in particular with respect to the Human Factors Engineering (HFE) methodology. This paper insists on the functional needs to take into account by the designer during the design of the product and the need for writing a document as 'functional requirements' which presents the experience feedback of the existing products, the HF studies carried out on site to have in-depth knowledge of the tasks and activities done by the operating crews related to the considered interface modifications, the requirements applicable during the design, etc. This paper insists on the need for being also prescriptive in the specifications on: 1) the iterative character of the design process, 2) the importance of building a multidisciplinary project team, 3) the need for tracing the design choices throughout the project, 4) the independence to be preserved during Verification and Validation phases between the 'validation team' and the 'design team', 5) the need to improve the technical solutions before on site implementation to take into account the results of evaluation tests. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22030147
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: NPIC and HMIT 2006: 5. International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation Controls, and Human Machine Interface Technology, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 12-16 Nov 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 5. International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation Controls, and Human Machine Interface Technology| 1430 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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