A framework to collect human reliability analysis data for nuclear power plants using a simplified simulator and student operators

• Published in: Reliability engineering & system safety 2022-05, Vol.221, p.108326, Article 108326
• Main Authors: Park, Jooyoung, Boring, Ronald L., Ulrich, Thomas A., Lew, Roger, Lee, Sungheon, Park, Bumjun, Kim, Jonghyun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Data collection; Human error; Human performance; Human reliability analysis; main control room; Nuclear power plant; Nuclear power plants; Operators; Probabilistic safety assessment; Rancor Microworld; Rancor microworld, Main control room; Reliability analysis; Reliability engineering; Sheep; Simplified human error experimental program (SHEEP); Simplified simulator; Simulation; Simulator study; Simulators; SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; Students
• ISSN: 0951-8320; 1879-0836
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2022.108326

•The Simplified Human Error Experimental Program (SHEEP) framework is proposed.•SHEEP aims to collect HRA data using simplified simulators and student operators.•The differences between student and professional operators using a simplified simulator are investigated.•The use of SHEEP data to support HuREX data collection is explored. Data scarcity in human reliability analysis (HRA) has been a major challenge in the quantification process. Many institutes have collected HRA data through experiments using full-scope simulators with actual operators. Nevertheless, there are still some limitations to relying solely on full-scope studies. This paper aims to propose how full-scope data collection studies can be supported through the Simplified Human Error Experimental Program (SHEEP). The SHEEP framework was developed by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to collect HRA data through a simplified simulator and student operators. This paper introduces the major tasks in the SHEEP framework, with a particular focus on differences that arise due to participant type (i.e., student vs. actual operator), based on experiments using a simplified simulator (i.e., the Rancor Microworld). This paper also describes whether the data collected via this approach could support a representative full-scope data collection study (i.e., the HuREX study) based on the experimental data.