Multi-Stage Evaluation Using GONUKE

Multi-stage validation (MSV) has become an important concept in nuclear power plant control room design and modernization. MSV consists of multiple stages of collecting evidence that establish reasonable confidence in the design. The Guideline for Operational Nuclear Usability and Knowledge Elicitation (GONUKE) was created as a framework to support different types of human factors evaluations across different stages of the design and development life cycle. The GONUKE framework did not originally address MSV, but it espoused safety case approaches that build different evidences toward design completion, which is a complementary approach to MSV. In this paper, we show how GONUKE specifically aligns to MSV. We then expand the discussion to include multi-stage evaluation. As defined in GONUKE, there are three types of evaluation. Validation is empirical evidence collected through human-in-the-loop studies, whereas verification is expert comparison of a design against formalized standards, and epistemiation is expert knowledge transfer to design.