In the mid-1970s a general awareness of human factors engineering deficiencies associated with power plant control rooms took shape and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) awarded the Lockheed Corporation a contract to review the human factors aspects of five representative operational control rooms and their associated simulators. This investigation revealed a host of major and minor deficiencies that assumed unforeseen dimensions in the post- Three Mile Island accident period. In the course of examining operational problems (Seminara et al, 1976) and subsequently the methods for overcoming such problems (Seminara et al, 1979, 1980) indications surfaced that power plants were far from ideal in meeting the needs of maintenance personnel. Accordingly, EPRI sponsored an investigation of the human factors aspects of power plant maintainability (Seminara, 1981). This paper provides an overview of the maintainability problems and issues encountered in the course of reviewing five nuclear power plants.