Human reliability analysis (HRA) in the context of HRA testing with empirical data

Given the significant differences in the scope, approach, and underlying models of a relatively wide range of existing HRA methods, there has been a growing interest on the part of HRA method developers and users to empirically test the various methods. To this end, there is an ongoing international effort to begin this process by testing the application of HRA methods to nuclear power plant operating crew performance in the HAMMLAB simulators at the Halden Reactor Project in Norway. Initial efforts in designing and implementing these studies have identified a number of issues associated with structuring the studies in order to allow an adequate and appropriate test of the different methods. This paper focuses on issues associated with applying HRA methods in the context of an empirical study, particularly when a research simulator is used for data collection. Example issues include: determining the scope of the analysis when the methods themselves differ in the scope of the HRA processes they address, accounting for differences between the methods in how they use simulator exercises to support the analysis, addressing the impact of experimental controls on application of methods, and given the low probability of human failure events typically modelled in nuclear power plant probabilistic risk/safety assessments (PRAs/PSAs), the need for analysts to present their results in a somewhat different format than they usually do. These types of issues related to applying HRA methods in the context of empirical studies are discussed and resolutions are proposed.