Reviewing Consensus HFE Standards for NRC Use: A Case Study Using the IEEE Standard for Computerized Operating Procedure Systems

摘要

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) endorsement of consensus standards provides a cost-effective means of enhancing the staffs ability to review state-of-the-art designs. Although the NRC endorsed consensus standards in many technical disciplines, it yet has to do so in human factors engineering (HFE). The purpose of our study was to develop a standardized methodology whereby to evaluate a consensus HFE standard to determine its appropriateness to, and adequacy for using in licensing reviews. The high-level objective of the methodology is to ensure that the guidance meets the NRC's requirements on scientific- and engineering-rigor that they use in developing their own guidance. We propose four criteria for endorsing a consensus standard: (1) It should meet an existing need for NRC's licensing and safety reviews; (2) it should be based on sound HFE principles; (3) it should be thoroughly peer-reviewed; and, (4) it should address human performance issues identified in the literature. Our methodology offers a means to assess these four criteria. We used it to evaluate an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) draft standard on computerized operating procedure systems. We concluded that the IEEE standard generally met the established criteria, although several areas were identified that needed further clarification. Our evaluation methodology particularly was useful for identifying issues to be resolved, and for providing a basis for judging whether the staff should consider endorsing the standard. The methodology also helped recognize criteria in the proposed standard that may benefit from additional scrutiny by the staff. The evaluation methodology developed is applicable generally to reviewing other HFE standards that the NRC is considering for use or endorsement.