2. The History of HAMMLAB

The history of HAMMLAB is tightly intertwined with the history of the OECD Halden Reactor Project. This chapter first gives a short account of the events leading up to the construction of the Halden reactor and the establishment of the Halden Project, and why a research program on process control emerged from the activities at the Halden reactor. A short summary of major activities in the pre-HAMMLAB period follows. The major drivers for the establishment of HAMMLAB in 1983 were the accident that occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in 1979 and the recommendations that followed from the analysis of the accident. The Halden Project proposed the construction of a Man–Machine Systems Laboratory to the Halden Board of Management, with the initial idea to systematically, in a controlled setting, validate different operator support systems and study various human performance issues. The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with an overview of activities performed in HAMMLAB over the 25 years of operation. In particular, the chapter demonstrates how HAMMLAB’s focus has shifted and broadened from its initial focus on operator support systems and human performance to more generic human factors studies addressing issues such as staffing level, automation level and teamwork. Today, the research carried out in HAMMLAB ranges from studies providing data for human reliability assessment to studies directed at the design, testing and evaluation of human system interfaces, and the development and testing of operation support systems. In addition to this, research at the laboratory explores the potentials of virtual and augmented reality technologies for extending and improving teamwork and planning in various nuclear power plant settings.