Human errors and work performance in a nuclear power plant control room: associations with work-related factors and behavioral coping

The present study investigated the relationships between the operator's appraisal of his own work situation and the quality of his own work performance as well as self-reported errors in a nuclear power plant control room. In all, 98 control room operators from two nuclear power units filled out a questionnaire and several diaries during two operational conditions, annual outage and normal operation. As expected, the operators reported higher work demands in annual outage as compared to normal operation. In response to the increased demands, the operators reported that they used coping strategies such as increased effort, decreased aspiration level for work performance quality and increased use of delegation of tasks to others. This way of coping does not reflect less positive motivation for the work during the outage period. Instead, the operators maintain the same positive motivation for their work, and suceed in being more alert during morning and night shifts. However, the operators feel less satisfied with their work result. The operators also perceive the risk of making minor errors as increasing during outage. The decreased level of satisfaction with work result during outage is a fact despite the lowering of aspiration level for work performance quality during outage. In order to decrease relative frequencies for minor errors, special attention should be given to reduce work demands, such as time pressure and memory demands. In order to decrease misinterpretation errors special attention should be given to organizational factors such as planning and shift turnovers in addition to training. In summary, the outage period seems to be a significantly more vulnerable window in the management of a nuclear power plant than the normal power production state. Thus, an increased focus on the outage period and human factors issues, adressing the synergetic effects or work demands, organizational factors and coping resources is an important area for improvement of safety in the nuclear power industry.