Challenges of human reliability analysis in digitalization of nuclear power plant control rooms

More widespread use of digital technology is expected in the existing nuclear power plant main control room upgrades and in building of new plants. Practically all safety functions will be controlled by digital I&C systems, including the human system interfaces in the main control room. Advances in automation present a new modelling environment for the human reliability analysis (HRA) practitioner. Existing HRA methods to quantify the human actions were developed during a time when no computer-based procedures or digital I&C existed in the operating nuclear power plants. These impacts, whether positive or negative, on the operator performances from the use of digital I&C need to be investigated and reflected in the HRA quantification. The subject of this literature review is challenges of HRA in the digitalization of nuclear power plant control rooms. The aim has been to present, on the basis of selected literature, what kind of aspects have been brought out concerning HRA as support to risk assessments and HRA as a design tool. The literature on the subject is scarce. The presented material consists of relevant journal papers, conference proceedings and reports of international agencies from the nuclear field. The report describes briefly the impacts of the changes in the control room crews' operating context. The findings concerning HRA as part of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) are introduced, focusing on considerations of needs and ways of taking account the changes in the analysis of influencing contextual factors in HRA. In addition, the findings concerning considerations of integration of HRA with human factors design activities in the early phase of the design process, are described.