Long duration, low task load environments are typical for nuclear power plant control rooms, whereoperators, after hours of operating under a low task load situation, may have to shift to a high task loadsituation. The effects of time-on-task and boredom due to low task load will be an important considerationfor the design of new nuclear power plant control rooms, which will rely more heavily on automation. Thispaper describes a research study of performance in a simulated nuclear control room environment, where36 participants responded to an alarm during a 4 hour long experiment where the alarm onset time and theavailability of distractions were varied. The results indicate that operators perform better in a sterileenvironment and that the duration of non-active time before the alarm influences operator performance.
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