Empirical Studies of Candidate Leading Indicators of Safety in Nuclear Power Plants: An Expanded View of Human Factors Research

Abstract

The role of management and organization factors in safety performance in nuclear power plants is examined. period, funded by the Research Division, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. is guided by a framework which proposes that certain management and organizational characteristics influence intermediate outcomes, which include the level of operating efficiency of the plant, the quality of its components, the compliance of its systems and people to preestablished standards, and the plant's capacity for recognizing potential problems, and finding and implementing solutions to them. Relationships between these intermediate outcomes and the post-hoc measures of safety currently being used by the NRC are examined. Candidate variables among the intermediate outcomes which might become "leading" indicators of safety are discussed. management and organization factors which provide antecedent conditions leading to the intermediate outcomes and ultimately to safe operations. of problem solving capacity, organizational learning, financial resources, and the relationship between the utility-level strategy and the plant are being conducted and the results will be reported. The paper calls for an expanded view of human factors research in understanding the causes of complex human and system behavior which ultimately leads toward a goal of safe operations in nuclear power plants.The research to be reported has been conducted over a two-yearThe researchIn addition, the research seeks to identifyEmpirical studies of the effects When accidents or major breaches of safety occur in organizations with complex technologies, the causes of such accidents are often attributed to mistakes by operators, their supervisors, faulty equipment, or some combination of these. the accidents, including Bhopal , Chernobyl , Challenger, and detailed case studies of Three Mile Island inevitably point to a number of precursors to the specific incident. the 1 ist of precursors are management and organizational factors (c.f.