Five years of simulator evaluation - A contribution to safety culture

Simulator training has been an important component in education and advance d training at a high level of nuclear power plant personnel for more than 2 5 years. From the beginning of simulator training, checking on the objectiv es of learning and feedback have been part and parcel of the effort. In the course of the revision of the 1990 Directive on Expertise of License d Personnel in Nuclear Power Plants composed by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU), the type and organization of evaluations and th e inclusion of qualified simulator trainers were expressed in even more con crete terms. Simulator evaluation serves the purpose of assessing, on the basis of the g oals of practical exercises and courses established jointly with nuclear po wer plant operators, the performance and the behavior I of individual parti cipants so as to obtain in formation and guidance for further work. In addi tion, both simulator trainers, the Simulator Center, and the operators are to receive feedback with respect to the courses held and for checking again st plans. First experience since the introduction of simulator evaluation has shown a basically positive assessment by all participants, i.e. attendees, operato rs, and the Simulator Center, expressing important aspects in support of tr aining. As new simulators were commissioned in the mid-nineties, this met o ne of the major requests by course participants for a realistic model of th eir working environment. The experience accumulated also helps optimum training by means of simulato rs and thus ultimately also contributes to the safety culture in German nuc lear technology.