China Safety Science Journal ›› 2025, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (6): 128-133.doi: 10.16265/j.cnki.issn1003-3033.2025.06.1386

• Safety engineering technology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Assessment of operator task-handling complexity in nuclear power plant accident scenarios

JIANG Qike1,2(), WANG Yanxin2, LI Pengcheng1,2,**()   

  1. 1 School of Resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang Hunan 421001,China
    2 Human Factor Institute, University of South China, Hengyang Hunan 421001,China
  • Received:2025-02-05 Revised:2025-04-11 Online:2025-06-28 Published:2025-07-30
  • Contact: LI Pengcheng

Abstract:

To rigorously assess the complexity of operator task execution under nuclear power plant accident scenarios, this study proposes an operator task-handling complexity (OTHC) evaluation model based on information entropy and image entropy. The model evaluates complexity from three dimensions: interface information complexity (IIC), task complexity (TC), and protocol complexity (PC). It establishes an evaluation system comprising eight complexity indicators, including interface layout, icons, text, and color. The entropy weighting method was employed to objectively assign weights, enabling quantitative evaluation of complexity using the model. To validate the model's effectiveness, a primary circuit small-break loss-of-coolant accident diagnosis task was used as a case study, for which a complexity network diagram is constructed, and the proposed model is applied to assess complexity. Subjective workload data are collected using the national aeronautics and space administration task load index (NASA-TLX) scale. The results show that the OTHC of the primary circuit is higher than that of the secondary circuit. The complexity assessed by the constructed model is highly positively correlated with subjective complexity, effectively reflecting the actual level of task processing complexity.

Key words: nuclear power plants, accident scenarios, operators, task complexity(TC), assessment model, image entropy

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