Establishing Successful Teamwork in Upset Response - Issues and Control Centre Impacts

Effective teamwork among control room and shift staff is essential for plant production and safety in all phases of plant operations. During response to unit upsets and emergencies, effective teamwork among control room and responding shift staff is especially critical for operational, public, and environmental safety, investment protection, and minimization of production loss. In CANDU multi-unit power stations, a common area is used to house the control room resources for all units. With this common control centre arrangement, staff from adjacent units is available to assist in response to upsets or emergencies with any unit. Consequently, the Canadian upset response practice has evolved to draw on the available experience and skills offered by staff from adjacent units. This paper discusses the Canadian experience with achieving effective teamwork during upset response where responding staff from adjacent units are integrated with the unit team members to achieve a co-ordinated and more capable response capability. (authors)