Title: An effort to improve the operators' habits of actions in normal operations and in disturbance situations at TVO NPP in Finland

Authors: Charles Karlsson

Addresses: Operation Training, Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO), 27160 Olkiluoto, Finland

Abstract: Teollisuuden Voima Oy owns and operates two ABB BWR's, each of 850 MW net outputs. A full-scope training simulator was commissioned in March 1990 at the TVO Olkiluoto plant site. This paper discusses the development of a method to evaluate and improve the operators| habits of actions in a task performance at the Teollisuuden Voima Oy full-scope training simulator. The development of the method started as a study in autumn 1992 and the first goal of the study was to analyse the dynamics of operators| decision making in the on-line control of a disturbance situation. The analysis was ready in 1994. The second goal was to develop out of the analysis method a tool that could serve as the instructor|s in evaluating the individuals and the crew|s simulator performances. It was assumed that such a tool would enhance the efficiency of the simulator training, because with it the instructors could provide more explicit performance feedback for the operators. The next stage was to apply the method to the entire simulator training and create a course, which consists of a theoretical part and practical training on the simulator. That was done in the retraining period in 1998. The future goals are to improve the method so that it will be used in all the simulator training at the Teollisuuden Voima Oy full-scope training simulator (OLKS).

Keywords: good habits; normal operation; disturbance situations; operator knowledge; operators preparedness; decision making; nuclear industry; training; simulation; operator performance; performance evaluation; simulator training; nuclear safety.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNKM.2004.005107

International Journal of Nuclear Knowledge Management, 2004 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.110 - 119

Published online: 02 Sep 2004 *

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