The use of questionnaire and virtual reality in the verification of the human factors issues in the design of nuclear control desk

A nuclear control room is a complex system that controls a thermodynamic process, where the operators interact with systems and human-system interfaces that have significant implications for the nuclear plant safety. This paper presents a case study in which an evaluation using a questionnaire, based on human factors guidelines, has been applied in a real and a virtual control desk of a research nuclear reactor. The aims of this study are, firstly, to provide designers a comprehensible human factors questionnaire for the evaluation of nuclear control desks and, secondly, to show that the verification of the human factors issues in the design of nuclear control desks can be carried out by experts using virtual models. The evaluation has been carried out by two human factors experts and two licensed operators. The level of agreement among the evaluators for all portions of the human factors questionnaire was greater than 0.70. The results indicated the validity of the human factors questionnaire and that the virtual reality technology is an useful tool, assisting the designers and evaluators during the design review of nuclear control desks, making possible the identification of problems in the early phase of the design. Human factors review process is an integral component of the final safety analysis report of a nuclear power plant. The human factors questionnaire developed in this study will provide valuable support for the enhancement of the efficiency of the licensing process and adequacy of the design of nuclear control desks to the legal requirements of the international regulatory agency, making possible the identification of design problems that can influence the evaluation of the nuclear safety risk.