The relationship between human error and occupational stress of commissioning workers in nuclear power plants: the mediating effects of anxiety

ABSTRACT

The commissioning of a nuclear power plant (NPP) is a high-intensity job with severe consequences in the event of accidents. Commissioning workers are exposed to both mentally and physically demanding conditions, factors that may impose an elevated probability of human errors. This study aimed to explore the relationship between occupational stress (OS) and human error (HE) among commissioning workers in NPPs and verify whether anxiety mediates this relationship. A cross-sectional, descriptive and analytic study was carried out among 215 commissioning workers across three NPP commissioning sites in China, three questionnaires were used to collect data on OS, anxiety, and HE. The analyses were performed using the Process 3.0 macro in SPSS to verify the mediation effect. This study highlights the need for individual stress and anxiety management by providing managers with insight into the mechanism of anxiety in relation to OS and HE, which can effectively reduce the probability of HE and improve the safety of nuclear power systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Nuclear power plant commissioning
• occupational stress
• human error
• anxiety
• mediating effect

Acknowledgments

The authors of this article would like to express their gratitude and appreciation to the commissioning personnel who participated in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [U1904210; 51874237] and the National Social Science Foundation of China under Grant [20XGL025].