Inclusion of organizational factors into probabilistic safety assessments of nuclear power plants

The authors report on progress made at UCLA on including organizational factors in probabilistic safety assessments (PSA) of nuclear power plants (NPP). The overall objective of the project is to amalgamate PSA and organization theory so that the resultant models and instruments will be useful to nuclear power plant personnel. The results of a preliminary study on a measure of the safety culture are presented, and some patterns that these results may suggest are discussed, together with the Work Process Analysis Model (WPAM) and its regulatory applications. The major applications of WPAM is the assessment of the organizational failures that are relevant to plant safety. The measurement of technical knowledge of plant personnel is discussed.<>