Behind the Scenes with Sellafield’s Human Factors Team

We caught up with two of the team’s newest members to hear what drew them to their role, what kind of work they’ve been involved in, and why Human Factors is so crucial to Sellafield’s long-term mission.

Neil Correia joined Sellafield in early 2024 as a Human Factors Assessor.

“The human factors challenges faced by Sellafield are wide ranging and always different. Each case exposes you to a different activity that needs you to always think critically when applying human factors. The attraction to the role was being able to support anything from new build, to modifications, to incident investigation; each with its own human factors challenges.”

Ellis Ewin became part of the team through the Human Factors Graduate Scheme in September 2024.

“I recently joined SL on the Human Factors Graduate Scheme in September 2024. Going into my final year of my Psychology degree I knew that I wanted a person-centred career. It was by chance that I stumbled upon the Human Factors role after seeing it advertised on a job website. From reading the job description, the operator-focused aspect of this role initially attracted me.

“Now, nearly 4 months in, it’s the operator-centred nature of Human Factors that makes this role so interesting. My degree in Psychology has been very useful whilst in this role, providing me with a basis of understanding human behaviour and how this may lead to errors and what measures can be put in place to help reduce the likelihood of error.”

Their day-to-day work covers a wide range of areas across the business. From design reviews to operational safety, the team’s input supports many different parts of Sellafield’s value streams.

Neil explains:

“The human factors team works across all the value streams contributing to minor modifications to operating plan milestones.”

Ellis adds:

“I’m currently working on a mixture of design and safety assessment work across multiple projects and am really enjoying the variety of opportunities to be exposed to different parts of the business that Human Factors offers.”

So what’s on the horizon for 2025?

The team’s goals remain focused on supporting Sellafield’s long-term clean-up mission, by making sure that people can carry out their work safely, confidently and consistently.

Neil says:

“Our objectives for 2025 are to continue supporting Sellafield to creating a clean and safe environment for future generations. We do this by ensuring our people can comfortably, safely, and reliably conduct operations whilst reducing the human contribution to risk.”

And Ellis offers a reminder that behind every safe procedure is a person:

“Human Factors play a crucial role in enabling SL’s mission by ensuring that operators have a safe work environment and emphasising that its people are at the heart of the business.”