Review of methods related to assessing human performance in nuclear power plant control room simulations

With the increased use of digital systems in Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) control rooms comes a need to thoroughly understand the human performance issues associated with digital systems. A common way to evaluate human performance is to test operators and crews in NPP control room simulators. However, it is often challenging to characterize human performance in meaningful ways when measuring performance in NPP control room simulations. A review of the literature in NPP simulator studies reveals a variety of ways to measure human performance in NPP control room simulations including direct observation, automated computer logging, recordings from physiological equipment, self-report techniques, protocol analysis and structured debriefs, and application of model-based evaluation. These methods and the particular measures used are summarized and evaluated.