Supporting situation awareness and collaboration in nuclear power plant operations: The role of large screen displays

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Safe operation of nuclear power plants depends on operators maintaining an overview of plant status and collaborating with one another. The human-machine interface is the primary resource for maintaining that overview. Large screen displays are becoming prevalent components of the human-machine interface in new and newly refurbished control rooms. The design objectives of these displays are 1) to support an operator overview of the process, and 2) to support collaboration amongst operators and supervisors in the control room. However, there is very little empirical data to validate that these benefits obtain. The project will have two major phases. In the first, we will create two new overview displays for the Enhanced Candu 6 nuclear power plant; one of which will be a large screen display. We will adapt a second large screen display from an operating Candu 6 reactor. In the second phase, we will evaluate the three displays in a control room simulator facility. The results of the study will benefit the Canadian industry partner, the Canadian public, and the researchers. The industry partner will obtain new insight into the design of information displays that increase the effectiveness of operating crews. The public will benefit from the incremental improvement in the safe and reliable operation of nuclear power facilities. Finally, the researchers will create new knowledge about design methods and products that help operators form a better understanding of plant status and coordinate their efforts to maintain a safe and reliable power supply.