An EdF technical and ergonomic evaluation of control rooms for the new French PWRs

Operational feedback and studies carried on by Electricite de France to improve safety and to identify main causes of unavailability demonstrated the important influence of human factors. For the new N4 pressurized water reactor series, it was decided in 1980 to start a study to review control room design and the architecture of the control-monitoring system in order to reduce human error probability and allow evolutions. The first N4 unit will be put into commercial operation in 1991. In this paper the the authors describe two periods: design principles' definition and related organization, and design validation and related methodology.