Assessment of human–machine interface design for a Chinese nuclear power plant

A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a complex system but requires high reliability. The human–machine interface (HMI) design plays very important role in reactor safety. This paper describes an assessment on HMI design of a Chinese NPP, using a software system named Dynamic Interaction Analysis Support (DIAS). DIAS can give not only quantitative indices for dynamically assessing the HMI design, but also allow modify the values of these indices by taking into account human error probability during specified emergent operation procedures. The operation procedures dealing with postulated accidents and transients recorded from a full-scale plant simulator in the training center of a Chinese NPP were selected as references. According to the results of simulation and analysis, the potential problems in the HMI design and the operation procedures were detected. Suggestions to improve the HMI design and the operation procedures were addressed.