Experimental studies of potential safety-significant factors in the application of computer-based procedure systems

The Halden Reactor Project will in 2002 and 2003 perform a series of simulator experiments on computer-based procedure (CBP) systems in the Halden Man-Machine Laboratory (HAMMLAB). Crews of licensed operators will be engaged in safety relevant scenarios while operating from CBP systems with various degrees of automation. The effect of the level of automation on the crews' performance will be assessed over an array of measurements that can be used in human reliability analysis (HRA). COPMA (Computerised Procedure Manual), a tool for developing CBP systems, will be utilised in the experiments. This tool offers several functions that are useful when doing comparative human factors experiments. Most important is the configuration possibilities of the operator interface and procedure implementation support offered by the CBP. An important objective of the experiments is that the results should be directly relevant to HRA. The paper outlines several steps on how this will be achieved. It is concluded that the steps taken to perform safety-relevant CBP experiments, may be used as a general framework for obtaining input to HRA in simulator experiments.