COGNITIVE ENVIRONMENT SIMULATION - A TOOL FOR MODELING INTENTION FORMATION FOR HUMAN RELIABILITY-ANALYSIS

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is sponsoring a program to develop improved methods to model the cognitive behavior of nuclear power plant (NPP) personnel. As part of this program a computer simulation called Cognitive Environment Simulation (CES) has been developed for simulating how people form intentions to act in NPP emergencies. A methodology called Cognitive Reliability Assessment Technique (CREATE) has also been developed that describes how CES can be used to provide input to human reliability analyses (HRA) in probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) studies. This paper describes the results of three activities that were performed to begin the process of evaluating the viability of this modeling approach: (1) A technical review was conducted by a panel of experts in cognitive modeling, PRA and HRA; (2) CES was exercised on steam generator tube rupture incidents for which data on operator performance exist; (3) a workshop with HRA practitioners was held to analyze a "worked example" of the CREATE methodology. The results of all three evaluations indicate that CES/CREATE is a promising approach for modeling intention formation.