ATHEANA: A Technique for Human Error Analysis: An Overview of Its Methodological Basis

The U.S. NRC has developed a new human reliability analysis (HRA) method, called A Technique for Human Event Analysis (ATHEANA), to provide a way of modeling the so-called 'errors of commission' - that is, situations in which operators terminate or disable engineered safety features (ESFs) or similar equipment during accident conditions, thereby putting the plant at an increased risk of core damage. In its reviews of operational events, NRC has found that these errors of commission occur with a relatively high frequency (as high as 2 or 3 per year), but are noticeably missing from the scope of most current probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs). This new method was developed through a formalized approach that describes what can occur when operators behave rationally but have inadequate knowledge or poor judgement. In particular, the method is based on models of decision-making and response planning that have been used extensively in the aviation field, and on the analysis of major accidents in both the nuclear and non-nuclear fields. Other papers at this conference present summaries of these event analyses in both the nuclear and non-nuclear fields. This paper presents an overview of ATHEANA and summarizes how the method structures the analysis of operationally significant events, and helps HRA analysts identify and model potentially risk-significant errors of commission in plant PRAs. (authors)