OPERA—a human performance database under simulated emergencies of nuclear power plants

In complex systems such as the nuclear and chemical industry, the importance of human performance related problems is well recognized. Thus a lot of effort has been spent on this area, and one of the main streams for unraveling human performance related problems is the execution of HRA. Unfortunately a lack of prerequisite information has been pointed out as the most critical problem in conducting HRA. From this necessity, OPERA database that can provide operators’ performance data obtained under simulated emergencies has been developed. In this study, typical operators’ performance data that are available from OPERA database are briefly explained. After that, in order to ensure the appropriateness of OPERA database, operators’ performance data from OPERA database are compared with those of other studies and real events. As a result, it is believed that operators’ performance data of OPERA database are fairly comparable to those of other studies and real events. Therefore it is meaningful to expect that OPERA database can be used as a serviceable data source for scrutinizing human performance related problems including HRA.