A proposition of human factors approaches to reduce human errors in nuclear power plants

Human errors in nuclear power plants have been an important subject in the human factors research domain. Although the mechanism of human errors seems not to draw any more interests from reputable researchers, human errors are still occurring in nuclear power plants and efforts to effectively reduce these human errors are still being searched. In this paper, some practices, e.g. HPES, PSR, and HFMP, which are the applications of human factors engineering to Korean nuclear power plants, are discussed. PSR activities are described in detail here since they have brought about many valuable insights into human factors in NPPs. It is also discussed what we should consider in the analyses of human error events. In contrast to this retrospective approach, several prospective approaches are discussed in this paper; work condition analyses for the tasks taken place at locations other than control rooms, the expansion of training opportunities to local operators, the development of an effective know-how transfer system, the establishment of a job management system by considering changes in the morals and cultures in the performance of jobs in NPPs.