ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Human Reliability Assessment (HRAs). There are therefore many references to more general texts available, for example on the nature of human error. The chapter aims to present practical guidance on how to use certain techniques, and their advantages and disadvantages. Some of the techniques are, it should be added, highly comprehensive methodologies in their own right. The chapter also aims to serve as a handbook or reference book for the practitioner or as a detailed primer for the student in applied HRA. It is hoped that it may encourage the use of HRAs both in probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) and non-PSA applications, since, for all its limitations, the HRA discipline still has much to offer. Virtually all systems are susceptible to human error and so can benefit from HRA, although they may not need so intensive an assessment as, for example, a nuclear-power plant.
