Identifying and clustering performance shaping factors for nuclear power plant commissioning tasks

The commissioning of a nuclear power plant (NPP) is the last stage in the life cycle of an NPP before commercial operation. Human errors in this stage cannot only harm workers' safety but can also cause damage to system facilities, postpone the commissioning schedule, and become latent problems in the system if the errors are not discovered during the commissioning stage. Therefore, identifying and controlling potential human errors is of great importance at this stage. This study first reviewed existing performance shaping factor (PSF) models and related research on NPPs as well as in other industry fields. Based on these aspects, and with the consideration of the characteristics of commissioning tasks, 8 PSF components and 110 PSF indicators were identified through a literature review and interview. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 269 respondents from 3 NPPs in China to determine commissioning workers' judgment of perceived occurrence frequency and impact of each indicator. Relevant PSF indicators were clustered into 24 PSF factors by exploratory factor analysis. Finally, the risk levels for identified factors and indicators were evaluated. The results show some commonalities with other PSF frameworks, and the differences are discussed.