CIEHF Nuclear Decommissioning Event
26 October 2017
Report by Cohort 3 researcher, Robin Hamer
This was a one day conference intended for human factors practitioners within the nuclear industry. The conference was split into 11 talks which, each given on a separate aspect of human factors, human factors within the nuclear industry, or human factors related to decommissioning. I found the talks very useful in terms of the human factors challenges within the nuclear industry and decommissioning sector. Many of the talks were suitable and related to my PhD and I obtained the relevant contact details of the speakers in the hope of using them for my second study (expert panel interviews):
|
Name |
Company |
Talk Title |
|
Jon Berman |
Greenstreet Berman Ltd |
Human Factors in Decommissioning Safety Cases – managing a changing safety environment |
|
Bob Hawkrigg
|
Cavendish Nuclear |
Appropriate human factors input to decommissioning safety case |
|
Jonathan Pyke |
Sellafield Ltd |
Sellafield: a site under change |
|
Rob Cotterill |
EDF Nuclear Generation |
Paint it black: End-to-end human factors in design and delivery for Sizewell B dry fuel store |
|
Christian Wilhelm |
Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd |
Decommissioning Dounreay – Challenges for human factors |
|
John Lovegrove |
Canary Designs |
A survival guide to practising ergonomics in the nuclear decommissioning industry when the schedule dominates proceedings |
|
Bill Gall |
Kingsley Management Ltd |
An EI guide to integrating human factors into decommissioning projects |
|
Clive Tunley |
Office for Nuclear Regulation |
The Regulator’s view |
|
Grant Hudson |
Cavendish Nuclear |
Human factors: What flavour are you? |
Furthermore, after listening to the talks at this conference it is clear to see that human factors is applicable in 4 distinct areas: existing operations (most money being spent), new builds (some money being spent), decommissioning (no/little money being spent) and fuel recycling and waste storage (little money being spent). This was a great help to know where the scope of the PhD may be best suited for the greatest impact.
Highlights of the day included networking with: Grant Hudson and Christian Wilhelm. I found that both Grant and Christian were very interested by the topic of the PhD and Christian who is also trying to do some Safety-II work and was very interested to share knowledge. They would also be very keen to participate in the expert panel interview which was very useful as they are both in different sectors within the nuclear industry. I also obtained some information on people who are attempted to do practical work on Safety-II in other industries (there was a mention of someone doing work with aviation). I hope to follow up on these leads and find out more information of where Safety-II may fit in.
To summarise, the event was very useful to hear about the burning issues within decommissioning especially with a human factors focus. The event provided some useful networking opportunities which gave some useful contacts. Finally, the event has prompted me to attend more human factors conferences to develop and grow my personal network.
