Human factors in the safety operation of atomic power plant

Study on human factors is the safety control of atomic power station has been attracting considerable attention since Chernobyl accident in 1986 as a turning point. Basic and practical researches closely related to actual works on human factors have been progressing in national and private facilities, respectively. From an aspect of human factors, the central control board (CCB) of boiling water reactor was outlined. In addition, the studies which are progressing in Atomic Energy Institute of Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd. are described. The design principle for the first CCB was to concentrate the major control systems and the supervisory ones into a central control room of a plant so as to control the whole plant. In CCB in the second generation, process computers and color CRT were applied aiming to enhance the safety of operation and reliability. This CCB was composed of the main board with 7 CRT for enhancing the plant conditions and two sub-boards, resulting to reduce the work load. The recent CCB in the third generation is designed aiming to prevent operational human errors at the time of accident and improve the efficacy of the practical operation. Human factors in an accident sequence were evaluated using a simulator prepared in the institute for training and it was found that errors were apt to occur in a region of high work load. The training effects could be assessed quantitatively. (M.N.)