Participatory Development of Virtual Reality Training for Nuclear Power Plant Field Operators

Virtual reality (VR)–based training has not yet fulfilled all expectations placed on it in the nuclear domain. Therefore, it is important to try to understand and identify possible causes of disappointments and difficulties in the adoption of VR technology in the training of nuclear operations. We conducted a case study, including expert interviews (on training and technological development points of view) and an explorative VR simulator test (involving field operators, i.e. user perspective), in one Finnish nuclear power plant that can be considered a pioneering agent in the field of VR training in the energy industry. A detailed examination of their participatory development approach for designing VR training for field operators revealed that a close collaboration between different stakeholder groups is required to optimize the VR training design process as well as the resulting outcomes. According to the interviews with technical developers, some technological advancements are needed before VR technology can be more extensively adopted in field operator training. However, they expect that further development of VR technology soon will pave the way for a more extensive application of VR in training of operative personnel. The trainers saw VR technologies as one possible option among many other tools and methods for learning. However, their main concern in the application of VR in training was about the added value and cost effectiveness of VR-based training. The usability of the VR training tools was another source of criticism. Even though the end users perceived the VR environment and training as positive, their opinions differed in terms of the value placed on VR training. Some participants thought that VR has a lot of potential for field operator training, whereas some of them were more skeptical and considered the less immersive alternatives as more viable.