MIDTERM Three Mile Island

This week your assignment will be the exam which will be due Friday April 17 before Noon.

You are to work alone on the exam but may ask ME questions via email or text. Any evidence
of copying or shared work will result in a zero for the exam.

Read the pdf handout on Three Mile Island. There are two articles included; a narrative is
across the top half of the pages, and a chronological account runs across the bottom half of the
pages. You are to read the top article first. It may take a couple of times to best understand what
is happening. Then read the bottom story. Again, it may take a couple of times to get oriented.
This is not the easiest to read, so take your time.

AFTER you have read the articles and have a good understanding of what happened, watch the
YouTube video documentary of the event. This provides some good video of the control room
and conditions, as well as broader background into what was happening in the community.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_HWrVeYP5E

1. How did human cognitive limitations make resolving the crisis difficult for the
operators? To earn credit, you MUST reference material in Chapter 6 and 7 of the
text, AND provide five examples from the Three Mile Island materials. You must
provide five limitations with examples.

2. The goal of ergonomics is to predict behavior and to design based on that expected
behavior. What were the problems that led to the disaster? I DO NOT want a
summary of the physical events from the story. You MUST provide the human
perspective; WHY did maintenance and operators act as they did from the start of the
events leading to disaster through to the end. List five examples where human
behavior was not appropriately predicted and the design was not effective. You must
reference appropriate concepts from the text in cognition and decision making to
receive credit. You must provide five with examples.
3. What would be a better design for each of the issues you cite in problem 2?