• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2013

Objective: The aim of this study is to describe several issues which should be considered in the human reliability analysis of soft control operations in nuclear power plants. Background: The operational environment of advanced main control rooms is totally different from that of conventional control rooms. The soft control is one of the major distinguishable features of the advanced main control rooms. The soft control operations should be analyzed to estimate the effects on human reliability. Method: The literatures, about task analysis, simulation data analysis, and a human reliability analysis method for the soft control, were reviewed. From the review, important issues for the human reliability analysis of the soft control were raised. Results: The results of task and simulation data analysis showed that the soft control characteristics could have large effect on human reliability and they should be considered in the human reliability analysis of the soft control operations. Conclusion: The soft control may affect human error and performance of operators. The issues described in this paper should be considered in the human reliability method for the advanced main control rooms. Application: The results of the soft control operation analysis might help to design more efficient interface and education/training program for preventing human errors. The described issues might help to develop a human reliability analysis method for soft control operations.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.8
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• pp.1697-1705
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• 2020

To enhance the credibility of human reliability analysis, various kinds of data have been recently collected and analyzed. Although it is obvious that the quality of data is critical, the practices or considerations for securing data quality have not been sufficiently discussed. In this work, based on the experience of the recent human reliability data extraction projects, which produced more than fifty thousand data-points, we derive a number of issues to be considered for generating meaningful data. As a result, thirteen considerations are presented here as pertaining to the four different data extraction activities: preparation, collection, analysis, and application. Although the lessons were acquired from a single kind of data collection framework, it is believed that these results will guide researchers to consider important issues in the process of extracting data.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.113-127
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• 1996

In Human Reliability Analysis(HRA), the uncertainties involved in many factors that affect human reliability have to be represented as the quantitative forms. Conventional probability- based human reliability theory is used to evaluate the effect of those uncertainties but it is pointed out that the actual human reliability should be different from that of conventional one. Conventional HRA makes use of error rates, however, it is difficult to collect data enough to estimate these error rates, and the estimates of error rates are dependent only on engineering judgement. In this paper, the error possibility that is proposed by Onisawa is used to represent human reliability, and the error possibility is obtained by use of fuzzy reasoning that plays an important role to clarify the relation between human reliability and human error. Also, assuming these factors are connected to the top event through Fault Tree structure, the influence and correlation of these factors are measured by fuzzy operation. When a fuzzy operation is applied to Fault Tree Analysis, it is possible to simplify the operation applying the logic disjuction and logic conjuction to structure function, and the structure of human reliability can be represented as membership function of the top event. Also, on the basis of the the membership function, the characteristics of human reliability can be evaluated by use of the concept of pattern recognition.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.896-908
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• 2022

As a part of probabilistic risk (or safety) assessment (PRA or PSA) of nuclear power plants (NPPs), the primary role of human reliability analysis (HRA) is to provide credible estimations of the human error probabilities (HEPs) of safety-critical tasks. In this regard, it is vital to provide credible HEPs based on firm technical underpinnings including (but not limited to): (1) how to collect HRA data from available sources of information, and (2) how to inform HRA practitioners with the collected HRA data. Because of these necessities, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute independently developed two dedicated HRA data collection systems, SACADA (Scenario Authoring, Characterization, And Debriefing Application) and HuREX (Human Reliability data EXtraction), respectively. These systems provide unique frameworks that can be used to secure HRA data from full-scope training simulators of NPPs (i.e., simulator data). In order to investigate the applicability of these two systems, two papers have been prepared with distinct purposes. The first paper, entitled "SACADA and HuREX: Part 1. The Use of SACADA and HuREX Systems to Collect Human Reliability Data", deals with technical issues pertaining to the collection of HRA data. This second paper explains how the two systems are able to inform HRA practitioners. To this end, the process of estimating HEPs is demonstrated based on feed-and-bleed operations using HRA data from the two systems.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.801-813
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• 2023

The events at Three Mile Island in the United States brought about fundamental changes in the ways that simulation would be used in nuclear operations. The need for research simulators was identified to scientifically study human-centered risk and make recommendations for process control system designs. This paper documents the human factors research conducted at the Human Systems and Simulation Laboratory (HSSL) since its inception in 2010 at Idaho National Laboratory. The facility's primary purposes are to provide support to utilities for system upgrades and to validate modernized control room concepts. In the last decade, however, as nuclear industry needs have evolved, so too have the purposes of the HSSL. Thus, beyond control room modernization, human factors researchers have evaluated the security of nuclear infrastructure from cyber adversaries and evaluated human-in-the-loop simulations for joint operations with an integrated hydrogen generation plant. Lastly, our review presents research using human reliability analysis techniques with data collected from HSSL-based studies and concludes with potential future directions for the HSSL, including severe accident management and advanced control room technologies.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1686-1697
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• 2022

As a part of probabilistic risk (or safety) assessment (PRA or PSA) of nuclear power plants (NPPs), the primary role of human reliability analysis (HRA) is to provide credible estimations of the human error probabilities (HEPs) of safety-critical tasks. Accordingly, HRA community has emphasized the accumulation of HRA data to support HRA practitioners for many decades. To this end, it is critical to resolve practical problems including (but not limited to): (1) how to collect HRA data from available information sources, and (2) how to inform HRA practitioners with the collected HRA data. In this regard, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) independently initiated two large projects to accumulate HRA data by using full-scale simulators (i.e., simulator data). In terms of resolving the first practical problem, the NRC and KAERI developed two dedicated HRA data collection systems, SACADA (Scenario Authoring, Characterization, And Debriefing Application) and HuREX (Human Reliability data EXtraction), respectively. In addition, to inform HRA practitioners, the NRC and KAERI proposed several ideas to extract useful information from simulator data. This paper is the first of two papers to discuss the technical underpinnings of the development of the SACADA and HuREX systems.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.10
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• pp.1361-1374
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• 2009

Due to the need of data for a Human Reliability Analysis (HRA), a number of data collection efforts have been undertaken in several different organizations. As a part of this effort, a human error analysis that focused on a set of simulator records on a Steam Generator Tube Rupture (SGTR) scenario was performed by using the Human Event Repository and Analysis (HERA) system. This paper summarizes the process and results of the HERA analysis, including discussions about the usability of the HERA system for a human error analysis of simulator data. Five simulated records of an SGTR scenario were analyzed with the HERA analysis process in order to scrutinize the causes and mechanisms of the human related events. From this study, the authors confirmed that the HERA was a serviceable system that can analyze human performance qualitatively from simulator data. It was possible to identify the human related events in the simulator data that affected the system safety not only negatively but also positively. It was also possible to scrutinize the Performance Shaping Factors (PSFs) and the relevant contributory factors with regard to each identified human event.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.87-100
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• 2020

Performance shaping factors (PSFs) in a human reliability analysis (HRA) are one that may influence human performance in a task. Most currently applicable HRA methods for nuclear power plants (NPPs) use PSFs to highlight human error contributors and to adjust basic human error probabilities (HEPs) that assume nominal conditions of NPPs. Thus far, the effects of PSFs have been treated independently. However, many studies in the fields of psychology and human factors revealed that there may be relationships between PSFs. Therefore, the inter-relationships between PSFs need to be studied to better reflect their effects on operator errors. This study investigates these inter-relationships using two data sources and also suggests a context-based approach to treat the inter-relationships between PSFs. Correlation and factor analyses are performed to investigate the relationship between PSFs. The data sources are event reports of unexpected reactor trips in Korea and an experiment conducted in a simulator featuring a digital control room. Thereafter, context-based approaches based on the result of factor analysis are suggested and the feasibility of the grouped PSFs being treated as a new factor to estimate HEPs is examined using the experimental data.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.13-24
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• 2002

Reduction and prevention of human error is one of the major interests for the enhancement of system safety and availability in Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). As human beings have become the weak point in the system safety, a systematic evaluation on human performance during emergency situation should be performed in advance to identify the potential vulnerability of human tasks. Though the data gathering and analysis from real field is an important precondition, there were no available data in nuclear field of korea. This paper presents the result of human performance analysis on emergency tasks in NNPs. Firstly, a task analysis was performed to identify the characteristics of operator tasks during emergency condition and to classify them into a set of generic emergency tasks. Secondly, simulation data were collected and analyzed for the emergency tasks using the full scope simulator of Younggwang NPPs. The analyzed human performance information cover the event diagnosis time, the execution time of each procedural step, observation parameters, typer of irrelevant response, pattern of communication among staffs, and so on. These performance data would be used for human reliability analysis and the research of human error as technical bases.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.194-200
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• 2016

Background: The influence of sociocultural factors on human reliability within an open sociotechnical systems is highlighted. The design of such systems is enhanced by experience feedback. Methods: The study was focused on a survey related to the observation of working cases, and by processing of incident/accident statistics and semistructured interviews in the qualitative part. In order to consolidate the study approach, we considered a schedule for the purpose of standard statistical measurements. We tried to be unbiased by supporting an exhaustive list of all worker categories including age, sex, educational level, prescribed task, accountability level, etc. The survey was reinforced by a schedule distributed to 300 workers belonging to two oil companies. This schedule comprises 30 items related to six main factors that influence human reliability. Results: Qualitative observations and schedule data processing had shown that the sociocultural factors can negatively and positively influence operator behaviors. Conclusion: The explored sociocultural factors influence the human reliability both in qualitative and quantitative manners. The proposed model shows how reliability can be enhanced by some measures such as experience feedback based on, for example, safety improvements, training, and information. With that is added the continuous systems improvements to improve sociocultural reality and to reduce negative behaviors.