A new organization-oriented technique of human error analysis in digital NPPs: Model and classification framework

Looking beyond the screen: A systematic review of safety in control rooms

As a complex socio-technical system, the Control Room (CR) is central to many industries, such as process, aviation, transportation, and mining. CRs' complexity impacts the safety, operational, engineering, regulatory, and financial performance of the system. In this study, a search strategy was defined and applied to three reputable databases: Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed. The search results underwent a two-stage screening process based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria were investigating the safety in the CR, full-text availability, and writing in English. The exclusion criteria were unrelated to the safety in the CR, non-English Language, and non-original studies. A total of 59 studies were included in the analysis. The included articles were systematically reviewed from the Human Reliability Assessment (HRA) and Human Factors Engineering (HFE) perspectives. Since these records covered various subjects related to human reliability and human factor aspects, a categorization step was added to the study process. In this step, all included studies were categorized based on their subjects. A total of 7 categories were identified, including reliability (17 documents), safety performance (13 documents), decision-support systems (7 documents), fire safety (2 documents), communication/teamwork (11 documents), situation awareness (4 documents), and others (5 documents). Finally, the included studies in each category were analyzed and discussed. The results of this study help identify different aspects of safety in the control room and plan to improve their safety weaknesses, which ultimately leads to an increase in the efficiency of employees and various industries.

Image Entropy-Based Interface Evaluation Method for Nuclear Power Plants

The digital interface is crucial for nuclear plant operators, influencing their decision-making significantly. However, evaluations of these interfaces often overlook users' decision-making performance; lack established standards, typically occurring after the design phase; and are unsuitable for large-scale assessments. Recognizing the vital role of interface information, this paper built on our previous research and proposed a method tailored for nuclear power plant interfaces, utilizing image entropy to evaluate the impact of information on decision-making. A comparative analysis with an experimental evaluation method empirically validated the effectiveness of the proposed method. This research offers a unique decision-making-centric method to interface evaluation, providing a standardized, adaptable framework for various design phases and enabling extensive and rapid evaluations.

Differences in attitudes of operators and managers on risk management of pressure equipment

Objectives. Previous research indicates that models for risk assessment of pressure equipment have not sufficiently or adequately integrated indicators of human factors and organizational factors. Methods. The goal of this article is to check the differences in attitudes of operators and managers engaged in the area of pressure equipment risk management. A questionnaire was designed and data were then collected from 253 operators and managers working with the same pressure equipment in Serbia. By applying a paired t test, differences in their attitudes were checked for issues described by the constructs of communication (COM), potentially hazardous materials and equipment (PHME), process safety (PS), safety and health at work (SHW), organizational change management (OCM), maintenance/inspection (MI) procedures, human error (HE), trainings and competences of employees for crisis situations (TCECS) and conducting research after accidents (CRAA). Results. It is statistically evident that the coincidence of attitudes accounted for less than 20% of questions. The highest coincidence is shown for PHME and TCECS, where one-half of the dimensions of the given constructs indicate that there are no statistically significant differences. Conclusions. The differences found could be used as an explanation for high-risk levels of pressure equipment exploitation and how they influence it.