Many probabilistic safety assessment studies completed to the date have
demonstrated that the risk dealing with low power and shutdown operation of
nuclear power plants is often comparable with the risk of at-power operation,
and the main contributors to the low power and shutdown risk often deal with
human factors. Since the beginning of the nuclear power generation, human
performance has been a very important factor in all phases of the plant
lifecycle: design, commissioning, operation, maintenance, surveillance,
modification, decommissioning and dismantling. The importance of this aspect
has been confirmed by recent operating experience. This paper provides the
insights and conclusions of a workshop organized in 2007 by the IAEA and the
Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, on Harmonization of low
power and shutdown probabilistic safety assessment for WWER nuclear power
plants. The major objective of the workshop was to provide a comparison of
the approaches and the results of human reliability analyses and gain
insights in the enhanced handling of human factors.
Outcomes of an international initiative for harmonization of low power and shutdown probabilistic safety assessment