Human Factors Considerations in New Nuclear Power Plants: Detailed Analysis.

O’Hara, John M.; Higgins, Joanne; Brown, William S.; Fink, Robert

doi:10.2172/926663

Cited by 20 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…While it is generally recognized that in power generation environments, automation in the form of intelligent agents is needed in safety-critical monitoring tasks like fault detection, situation assessment or diagnosis, and response planning [17], unfortunately there is no organized effort that we are aware of to focus on developing algorithms and associated decision tools in support of supervisors that will manage futuristic dynamic and adaptive smart grids. Such research is needed to determine the required degree of interactivity between supervisory control operators and the automation central to a pervasive computing system, how to manage the voluminous data streams that will be generated by smart energy systems, and how to balance the competing objectives of safety and optimal energy production.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paying Attention to the Man behind the Curtain

Cummings

Thornburg

2011

IEEE Pervasive Comput.

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Keywords: human supervisory control, decentralized systems, human-computer interface, smart grid, decision support, power plantsIn the push to develop smart energy systems, there is increasing focus on how to design systems that measure and predict user behavior in order to effect optimal energy consumption. While such focus is clearly an important component in the success of these future systems, substantially less attention is paid to the human on the other side of the energy system loop -the supervisors of power generation processes, the proverbial men (or women) behind the curtain. Out of sight and sadly in terms of technological advancements, out of mind, today these operators perform high risk jobs in often datarich, but information-impoverished settings. For these operators, pervasive computing of the future will likely add to an already complex array of data streams, and introduce a new layer of supervisory complexity in response to the goal of dynamically adapting energy management.The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in 1979 was caused primarily by operator misunderstanding of sensor data from an overwhelmingly complex control panel [1]. More recently in 2003 in the Northeast, operators were not able to both see and understand critical system states for nearby power grids, ultimately leading to the largest blackout in North American history which contributed to at least 11 deaths and cost an estimated $6 billion [2]. In these high profile cases, and in countless other more minor electric and nuclear power plant incidents, a significant problem was and continues to be the lack of explicit design to support rapid data aggregation and information visualization to support supervisors' time-pressured decision making.The development of smart energy systems that leverage pervasive computing could further add to the workload of these supervisory control operators who will have to predict possible power plant load and production changes due to environmental and plant events, as well as dynamic system adaptation in response to customer behaviors. Contrary to many assumptions, the insertion of more automation, both in terms of distributed sensors and algorithms to post-process data for operators, will not necessary reduce workload, nor necessarily improve system performance. These concepts are explored in more detail in the following sections. Supervisory Control and Workload in Power GenerationCurrent power generation operations are highly automated. In normal, day-to-day operations, automation controls the adjustment of system parameters, while human operators generally take the role of system supervisors, monitoring system states and typically intervening in only non-monitoring operations, such as responding to an alarm, managing a plant start-up, or overseeing other off-nominal operations. However, in present-day power generation operations, while the system itself is highly automated, little automation is used to support and augment supervisor decision-making and performance, especially in time...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paying Attention to the Man behind the Curtain

Cummings

Thornburg

2011

IEEE Pervasive Comput.

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“…Following the analysis of user needs (O'Hara et al, 2008b), a technical basis upon which to develop review guidance is developed. Our first step was to develop a characterization of plant automation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of potential humanperformance issues associated with these new technologies have been identified and prioritized (O'Hara et al, 2008a;O'Hara et al, 2008b). Two of the highest-priority issues were related to automation: "Levels of Automation," and, "Interfaces to Automation."…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guidance for Human-System Interfaces to Automatic Systems

O’Hara

Higgins

Fleger

et al. 2010

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

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Automation is ubiquitous in modern complex systems, and commercial nuclear-power plants are no exception. Automation is applied to a wide range of functions, including monitoring and detection, situation assessment, response planning, and response implementation. Automation has become a "team player" supporting personnel in nearly all aspects of system operation. In light of its increasing use and importance in new-and future-plants, guidance is needed to conduct safety reviews of the operator's interface with automation. The objective of this research was to develop such guidance. We first characterized the important HFE aspects of automation, including six dimensions: Levels, functions, processes, modes, flexibility, and reliability. Next, we reviewed literature on the effects of all of these aspects of automation on human performance, and on the design of human-system interfaces (HSIs). Then, we used this technical basis established from the literature to identify general principles for human-automation interaction and to develop review guidelines. The guidelines consist of the following seven topics: Automation displays, interaction and control, automation modes, automation levels, adaptive automation, error tolerance and failure management, and HSI integration.

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“…Revision 3 will be completed in 2011, and will provide updates for new research findings, e.g., concept of operations (O'Hara, Higgins, Brown & Fink, 2008), human performance models (O'Hara, 2009), automation (O'Hara & Higgins, 2010, and degraded instrumentation and control (I&C) (O'Hara, Gunther, & Martinez-Guridi 2010). In addition, modifications will be made to incorporate user feedback and lessons learned, and to clarify and consolidate existing content.…”

Section: Overview Of Nrc Guidance Updatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Updating Human Factors Engineering Guidelines For Conducting Safety Reviews of Nuclear Power Plants

O’Hara¹,

Higgins²,

Fleger³

2011

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

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The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reviews the human factors engineering (HFE) programs of applicants for nuclear power plant construction permits, operating licenses, standard design certifications, and combined operating licenses. The purpose of these safety reviews is to help ensure that personnel performance and reliability are appropriately supported. Detailed design review procedures and guidance for the evaluations is provided in three key documents: the Standard Review Plan (NUREG-0800), the HFE Program Review Model (NUREG-0711), and the Human-System Interface Design Review Guidelines (NUREG-0700). These documents were last revised in 2007, 2004 and 2002, respectively. The NRC is committed to the periodic update and improvement of the guidance to ensure that it remains a stateof-the-art design evaluation tool. To this end, the NRC is updating its guidance to stay current with recent research on human performance, advances in HFE methods and tools, and new technology being employed in plant and control room design. This paper describes the role of HFE guidelines in the safety review process and the content of the key HFE guidelines used. Then we will present the methodology used to develop HFE guidance and update these documents, and describe the current status of the update program.

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Human Factors Considerations in New Nuclear Power Plants: Detailed Analysis.

Cited by 20 publications

References 24 publications

Paying Attention to the Man behind the Curtain

Paying Attention to the Man behind the Curtain

Guidance for Human-System Interfaces to Automatic Systems

Updating Human Factors Engineering Guidelines For Conducting Safety Reviews of Nuclear Power Plants

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