THE HUMAN AS A COMPONENT OF A NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFEGUARD SYSTEM

Many human vigilance experiments are summarized and principles are extracted which should be useful in designing and evaluating a nuclear ma- terial safeguard system. A human is a poor observer and is not a dependable part of any man-machine system when required to function as an observer. There are a few techniques which improve his performance by providing feed- back. A conceptual model is presented which is helpful in design and evalua- tion of systems. There is some slight experimental support for the model. Finally, some techniques of time study and statistical control charting will be useful as a means of detecting nuclear diversion attempts.