Updating Human Factors Engineering Guidelines For Conducting Safety Reviews of Nuclear Power Plants

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reviews the human factors engineering (HFE) programs of applicants for nuclear power plant construction permits, operating licenses, standard design certifications, and combined operating licenses. The purpose of these safety reviews is to help ensure that personnel performance and reliability are appropriately supported. Detailed design review procedures and guidance for the evaluations is provided in three key documents: the Standard Review Plan (NUREG-0800), the HFE Program Review Model (NUREG-0711), and the Human-System Interface Design Review Guidelines (NUREG-0700). These documents were last revised in 2007, 2004 and 2002, respectively. The NRC is committed to the periodic update and improvement of the guidance to ensure that it remains a state-of-the-art design evaluation tool. To this end, the NRC is updating its guidance to stay current with recent research on human performance, advances in HFE methods and tools, and new technology being employed in plant and control room design. This paper describes the role of HFE guidelines in the safety review process and the content of the key HFE guidelines used. Then we will present the methodology used to develop HFE guidance and update these documents, and describe the current status of the update program

Guidance for human-system interfaces to automatic systems

Automation is ubiquitous in modern complex systems, and commercial nuclear- power plants are no exception. Automation is applied to a wide range of functions, including monitoring and detection, situation assessment, response planning, and response implementation. Automation has become a 'team player' supporting personnel in nearly all aspects of system operation. In light of its increasing use and importance in new- and future-plants, guidance is needed to conduct safety reviews of the operator's interface with automation. The objective of this research was to develop such guidance. We first characterized the important HFE aspects of automation, including six dimensions: Levels, functions, processes, modes, flexibility, and reliability. Next, we reviewed literature on the effects of all of these aspects of automation on human performance, and on the design of human-system interfaces (HSIs). Then, we used this technical basis established from the literature to identify general principles for human-automation interaction and to develop review guidelines. The guidelines consist of the following seven topics: Automation displays, interaction and control, automation modes, automation levels, adaptive automation, error tolerance and failure management, and HSI integration

Impaired glucose-1,6-biphosphate production due to bi-allelic PGM2L1 mutations is associated with a neurodevelopmental disorder

We describe a genetic syndrome due to PGM2L1 deficiency. PGM2 and PGM2L1 make hexose-bisphosphates, like glucose-1,6-bisphosphate, which are indispensable cofactors for sugar phosphomutases. These enzymes form the hexose-1-phosphates crucial for NDP-sugars synthesis and ensuing glycosylation reactions. While PGM2 has a wide tissue distribution, PGM2L1 is highly expressed in the brain, accounting for the elevated concentrations of glucose-1,6-bisphosphate found there. Four individuals (three females and one male aged between 2 and 7.5 years) with bi-allelic inactivating mutations of PGM2L1 were identified by exome sequencing. All four had severe developmental and speech delay, dysmorphic facial features, ear anomalies, high arched palate, strabismus, hypotonia, and keratosis pilaris. Early obesity and seizures were present in three individuals. Analysis of the children's fibroblasts showed that glucose-1,6-bisphosphate and other sugar bisphosphates were markedly reduced but still present at concentrations able to stimulate phosphomutases maximally. Hence, the concentrations of NDP-sugars and glycosylation of the heavily glycosylated protein LAMP2 were normal. Consistent with this, serum transferrin was normally glycosylated in affected individuals. PGM2L1 deficiency does not appear to be a glycosylation defect, but the clinical features observed in this neurodevelopmental disorder point toward an important but still unknown role of glucose-1,6-bisphosphate or other sugar bisphosphates in brain metabolism.</p

Use of HFE Guidance for the Review of Nuclear Power Plants

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) evaluates the human factors engineering (HFE) of nuclear power plant design and operations to protect public health and safety. The HFE safety reviews encompass both the design process and its products. The NRC staff performs the reviews using the detailed guidance contained in two key documents: the HFE Program Review Model (NUREG-0711) and the Human-System Interface Design Review Guidelines (NUREG-0700). This paper will describe these two documents and the method used to develop them. As the NRC is committed to the periodic update and improvement of the guidance to ensure that they remain state-of-the-art design evaluation tools, we will discuss the topics being addressed in support of future updates as well. </jats:p

IEEE Human Factors Standards for Nuclear Facilities: The Development Process, Available Standards, Current Activities, and the Future

Since 1980 the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has supported development of human factors (HF) standards. Within IEEE, Subcommittee 5 (SC5) of the Nuclear Power Engineering Committee develops and maintains HF standards applicable to nuclear facilities. These standards are structured in a hierarchical fashion. The top-level standard (IEEE Std. 1023) defines the HF tasks required to support the integration of human performance into the design process. Five lower tier documents (IEEE Std. 845, 1082, 1289, 1786 and 1707) expand upon the upper tier standard. Presently, two new HF standards projects are underway; one to provide HF guidance for the validation of the system interface design and integrated systems operation and another for designing and developing computer-based displays for monitoring and control of nuclear facilities. SC5 is also involved in outreach activities, including sponsorship of a series of conferences on human factors and nuclear power plants. </jats:p

User Interface Design Guidelines for Expert Troubleshooting Systems

This paper describes the status and preliminary results of an ongoing research project to develop and validate user interface design guidelines for expert troubleshooting systems (ETS). The project, which is sponsored by the Systems Technology Branch of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is part of a larger research program to study the application of emerging user interface technologies to the design and development of user interfaces for Space Station-era systems. The project has two separate research thrusts. The first and central thrust is to develop and validate a set of human engineering guidelines for designing the user interface of an ETS. The second thrust is to design and implement an electronic data base to manage storage and retrieval of the guidelines. This paper discusses the human factors issues that are unique to the design of a user interface for an ETS. This paper is not intended to address the breadth of research that has been conducted on human-computer interaction with conventional systems. This topic is well-represented in established human engineering principles, criteria and practices as desribed in the literature (e.g., Hendricks, et al, 1982; Norman, et al, 1983; Smith and Mosier, 1985; Norman and Draper, 1986; etc.). </jats:p

Human-system Interfaces for Automatic Systems

Automation is ubiquitous in modern complex systems, and commercial nuclear- power plants are no exception. Automation is applied to a wide range of functions including monitoring and detection, situation assessment, response planning, and response implementation. Automation has become a 'team player' supporting personnel in nearly all aspects of system operation. In light of its increasing use and importance in new- and future-plants, guidance is needed to conduct safety reviews of the operator's interface with automation. The objective of this research was to develop such guidance. We first characterized the important HFE aspects of automation, including six dimensions: levels, functions, processes, modes, flexibility, and reliability. Next, we reviewed literature on the effects of all of these aspects of automation on human performance, and on the design of human-system interfaces (HSIs). Then, we used this technical basis established from the literature to identify general principles for human-automation interaction and to develop review guidelines. The guidelines consist of the following seven topics: automation displays, interaction and control, automation modes, automation levels, adaptive automation, error tolerance and failure management, and HSI integration. In addition, our study identified several topics for additional research

Advanced Human Factors Engineering Tool Technologies

This paper presents the results of a study to identify the human factors engineering (HFE) technologies or tools presently used, and projected for use, by HFE specialists. Both traditional and advanced tools were candidates for inclusion in the study, although emphasis of the study was placed on advanced computer applications. Human factors practitioners representing the government, academia and private industry were surveyed to identify those tools most frequently used or viewed as most important for conducting HFE related work. If advanced tool capabilities did not meet existing job requirements, the specialists identified the types of tools they would like to see developed to fill the existing technology gaps. To facilitate the inclusion of new technologies as they become available, and to aid in the search and retrieval of a tool's capabilities, information obtained on the tools was entered into a database. The survey resulted in the identification of 88 advanced tools. The results of the study suggest that although a large number of tools presently exist that are capable of supporting human factors specialists in the practice of their profession, the HFE community needs additional tools, especially those configured to run on a desktop microcomputer. Future emphasis in tool development should focus on expert systems, human factors database compendiums, computer-assisted design (CAD) applications, workload prediction tools, and automated task analysis programs. </jats:p