Proposing a New Worker Mental Health Assessment (Using Bio-signals) to Enhance the Safety and Security of Nuclear Industries

Existing Fitness-For Duty (FFD) programs predominantly focus on assessing a workers drug and alcohol use and sleep deprivation However, there are a number of important psychological parameters that can affect a workers performance and attitude For example, a growing number of workers in Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) close to the Fukushima accident have suffered from depression and anxiety about the future and have exhibited a loss of motivation The concern is, these psychological manifestations may contribute to human error or promote an insider threat FFD programs are key to the effective NPP operation Thus, the objective of this study is to suggest incorporating a new mental health assessment, based on human bio-signals, into FFD programs Based on a literature review, this study investigated a variety of human reliability programs currently incorporated into FFD programs to identify their benefits and limitations To overcome the identified limitations, a new mental health-check-up program using Electroencephalogram(EEG), Electrocardiogram(ECG), and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) is proposed based on the results of our previous studies Using Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) analysis, the proposed additions to the mental health check-up program were validated This program will be helpful in assessing the reliability of the nuclear workforce and useful to improve the nuclear security culture (author)

Proposing a New Worker Mental Health Assessment (Using Bio-signals) to Enhance the Safety and Security of Nuclear Industries Conference Paper