Publications Details

A MULTILAYER NETWORK APPROACH TO ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF HUMAN PERFORMANCE SHAPING FACTORS ON SECURITY FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

Williams, Adam D.; Fleming Lindsley, Elizabeth S.

Multilayered networks (MLN), when integrated with traditional task analyses, offer a model-based approach to describe human performance in nuclear power plant security. MLNs demonstrate the interconnected links between security-related roles, security operating procedures, and technical components within a security system. However, when used in isolation, MLNs and task analyses may not fully reveal the impacts humans have within a security system. Thus, the Systems Context Lenses were developed to enhance design for and analysis of desired complex system behaviors, like security at Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). The System Context Lenses integrate systems engineering concepts and human factors considerations to describe how human actors interact within (and across) the system design, operational environment, and sociotechnical context. Through application of the Systems Context Lenses, critical Performance Shaping Factors (PSFs) influencing human performance can be identified and used to analytically connect human actions with technical and environmental resources in an MLN. This paper summarizes the benefit of a tiered-lens approach on a use case of a multilayered network model of NPP security, including demonstrating how NPP security performance can be improved by more robustly incorporating varying human, institutional, and broader socio-technical interactions.