Impact of stress on the satisfactory completion of a simulated crisis scenario by reactor operator and senior reactor operator requalification trainees at the Susquehanna Training Center

The sample of 21 requalification trainees used in this study involved four groups of trainees, who participated in the requalification training cycle from December 19, 1984, to January 16, 1985. The interference-response stress measurement was studied through the performance of tasks as measured by the instructor on the Trainee Scenario Evaluation Report. The direct-response stress measurement was examined through the measurement of heart beat and blood pressure of the trainees during the crisis scenarios as monitored by the Pollenex Digital Blood Pressure Machine. The reported-response stress measurement was studied through the trainee's self-evaluation on the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (Anxiety Scale)-Today Form. The major findings are: (1) because of the satisfactory completion of the crisis scenario by all of the requalification trainees, the study was unable to draw a significant relationship between any single trainee characteristic and the satisfactory completion of a crisis scenario; (2) an overall pattern exists in the heart beat and blood pressure of the direct-response stress measurement and in the MAACL of the reported-response stress measurement; and (3) twelve pairs of variables compared the unusual event, the general emergency event, and following the scenario means with the baseline mean for significance. Those twelve pairs included a significant difference at the 0.05 level between six pairs