An Improved HRA Process for Use In PRAs

Abstract

This paper summarizes an analytical process for performing an HRA in the context of a Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA), that addresses the major deficiencies of current HRA methods. This analytical process is being developed using the concepts captured in a multidisciplinary HRA framework [1], and is supplemented with the experience obtained from the analysis of historical nuclear power plant (NPP) events [2]. Both the framework and its application to the analysis of NPP events are earlier products of the HRA development project initiated by NRC in response to the recognized need for an improved, more realistic, approach to the modeling of human-system interactions. The analytical process is the application phase of a new approach to human reliability analysis called ATHEANA (A Technique for Human Error Analysis), which is based on an understanding of why human-system interaction failures occur, rather than on a behavioral, phenomenological description of operator responses, and represents a fundamental change in the approach to human reliability analysis.