This letter was published in Business Week
“Whitman says: “Despite its controversial reputation, nuclear is efficient and reliable.” Yet since 1950 there have been 20 nuclear accidents. One was major (on Mar. 28, 1979, at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor) and one catastrophic (on Apr. 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant). How can we say a major nuclear accident will not happen again?
Categories: Christine Whitman · Cognitive Egonomics · Cognitive Engineering · Human Error · Human Factors
In September 2006, a bridge collapsed in Laval (a Montreal suburb), resulting in 5 deaths. An inquiry, the Johnson commission, is trying to understand this event and prior incidents.
As always, multiple factors are involved in this accident: bad design, shoddy construction, poor repairs and substandard construction materials. These factors are always boiled down to human errors: a design, planning, executions or maintenance errors.
Categories: Cognitive Egonomics · Cognitive Engineering · Commission d'enquête sur le viaduc de la Concorde · Human Error · Jacques Marchand · James Reason · cognitive group
