Understanding Human Error and Aiding Human Diagnostic Behaviour in Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

Human operators in nuclear power plants have a frustrating job, fraught with dilemmas. On the one hand they take on a terrible responsibility to protect the public from risk of exposure to radiation; on the other hand they are paid to keep the turbines rolling and to avoid outage, so as to make money for their employer. On the one hand they are expected to follow explicit rules and regulations laid out by both their employer and the government regulatory body; on the other hand they are expected to be resourceful human beings, ready to. add their intelligence and common sense where purely automatic operation fails. On the one hand they are judged by their peers according to their speed of decision and action; on the other hand they know that they might best leave their hands in their pockets and count to 100 if a real emergency were to occur. They are aware that under the stress of such emergencies, their judgement may not be reliable; yet there is the danger that they will err on the side of assuming observed abnormalities are not serious, and not take the appropriate emergency action. They know the critical reason they are there is to take over in rapidly changing situations; but they know they may not be up to it.