Nuclear Worker Stereotypes
Westinghouse
Background
Westinghouse is proposing a new nuclear power reactor design, known as the AP1000, for construction and operation in the UK. The AP1000 design represents well over 50 years of Westinghouse nuclear reactor design experience.
The development of the AP1000 is the result of a design philosophy and design process that emphasises safety and simplicity. Since the mid-1980's, Westinghouse and its design partners have worked together to establish simple, proven design solutions to a robust set of design criteria. The design philosophy used throughout the development of the AP1000 is to create a safe nuclear power plant with costs, radiation exposures and radioactive discharges as low as reasonably practicable.
As part of the UK regulatory process, the HSE's Nuclear Directorate has been working with Westinghouse to conduct a Generic Design Assessment. This process includes an evaluation of safety, security and environmental implications of the new reactor design prior to application for site specific approvals.
Project
Human Factors forms an important part of the design review programme in demonstrating that the risk of human error is minimised. Within this area, the HSE has raised a number of questions in relation to the compatibility between a reactor design developed for US operators and its potential operation and maintenance by a UK workforce. The main issue is whether the UK operators/maintainers work to a set of population stereotypes and norms that are counter to elements of the proposed reactor design and which may increase the risk of human error and therefore potentially negatively impact on system safety.
This project was carried out in two phases: first, the identification and characterisation of nuclear worker stereotypes in the US and in the UK. We then assessed the identified stereotypes against the proposed AP1000 design.
Implementation
We identified the UK and US stereotypes via a mixture of operator interviews, workshops & an extensive literature search. We then assessed the degree of variation between the US and UK. Using the safety case we examined the control room tasks previously identified as having a potential for human error. We used a form of the HEART methodology to provide further support to the analysis. Finally we subjected our findings to review by an Expert Review Panels made up of Human Factors professionals.
Outcomes
Probably the main conclusion was that we found little evidence for the existence of what might be called "population stereotypes" - we found a number of characteristics of the UK and US worker populations but nothing ingrained or inherent. We found that the all of the "stereotypes" that were relevant to the design of the reactor were likely to have a negligible impact on human error and safety. We identified some user characteristics that would need some further consideration by the operating authority at a later date.