EXPLORING THE USE OF COGNITIVE MODELS FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANT HUMAN-SYSTEM INTERFACE EVALUATION

Abstract

Many of the United States’ commercial fleet of nuclear power plants (NPPs) are approaching the end of their operating licenses. To extend the life of these plants, advanced human-system interface (HSI) technologies are being researched to address aging and reliability concerns with existing legacy systems. Human factors engineering (HFE) a critical role in ensuring these technologies are designed in a way that does not introduce new failure modes and promotes optimal human-system performance. An important focus of HFE in NPP modernization is early involvement to inform design of the HSI. This includes traditional formative evaluations, which are done to collect design feedback. While these evaluations are useful, they are limited in providing convincing quantitative data for efficiency of use. This paper discusses the use of cognitive models to provide quantitative data early in the HSI design process. A comparison is made of three open-source and readily accessible cognitive modeling tools.