Following last year's Three Mile Island (TMI) Accident, there remains much concern about what is being done to prevent future incidents. With obvious emphasis on the major role played by human error, the human factors community, some members of the nuclear industry, and even the general public, saw possible implications for human factors applications in the nuclear power industry. What was needed was a rational definition of possible human performance contributions to the accident, a carefully thoughtout plan for both short and long term improvements, and then everyone pitching in to help make an already safe and efficient industry even better. A unique opportunity existed to emphasize human factors contributions to system performance while taking advantage of many applicable “lessons learned” in aerospace and the military. What occurred over the eighteen months since TMI was a mixture of confused responses rivaling Abbott& Costello's famed “Who's on first?!” routine. Human factors specialists, snake oil salesmen, and many inexperienced but eager individuals and companies rushed headlong into the nuclear age with threats, promises, and simple solutions to “save the industry.” However, even before TMI, some useful activities were underway and others have been planned and pursued since. This paper provides an overall summary of human factors related activities including industry planning, active contract activities, studies, research, and a comprehensive bibliography.
