Human reliability analysis in probabilistic safety assessment for nuclear power plants. A Safety Practice. A publication within the NUSS programme

Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) is playing an increasingly important role in the safe operation of nuclear power plants throughout the world. In order to establish a consistent framework for conducting PSA studies, for promoting technology transfer of the state of the art, and for encouraging uniformity in the way PSA is carried out, the IAEA is preparing a set of publications which gives guidance on various aspects of PSA. This document presents a practical approach for incorporating human reliability analysis (HRA) into PSA. It describes the steps needed and the documentation that should be provided both to support the PSA itself and to ensure effective communication of important information arising from the studies. It also describes a framework for analysing those human actions which could affect safety and for relating such human influences to specific parts of a PSA. This Safety Practice also addresses the limitations of PSA in taking account of human factors in relation to safety and risk. Refs, figs and tabs