Safety culture is certainly one of the toughest topics in nuclear safety because it is a matter of improving human functioning in a very technical and regulated industry. Nonetheless, it is today a well-established view that nuclear installations can be seen as systems influenced by humans, organisations, and technology. The relationship between the human element, the technical aspects of nuclear operations and the organisation in which they reside has been acknowledged as key to any effort to improve safety. It is also now well established that the cultural context influences the human and organisational factors: it is therefore essential to include perspectives and elements that focus on cultural attributes that may affect the conditions for the human and organisational factors that contribute to nuclear operations. In other words, considering safety culture means taking an interest in a set of practices (ways of working and interacting) and a state of mind (ways of thinking) widely shared by the members of an organisation when it comes to managing the most significant risks associated with its activities.
The NEA Working Group on Safety Culture (WGSC) was established to provide a senior-level regulatory forum for exchanging information and experiences and engaged in work to ensure that the safety culture of the regulatory body and the wider interconnected system have a positive impact on safety. Due to the importance of leadership influencing safety culture and vice versa to the effectiveness of a regulatory body, this group was subsequently restructured as the Working Group on Leadership and Safety Culture (WGLSC) with the aim to provide a forum for member countries to collaboratively address complex issues regarding leadership and safety culture to improve regulatory effectiveness and ensure that licensees meet the ultimate responsibility for ensuring safety. The priorities to be addressed are safety culture and leadership related to regulatory bodies and the wider interconnected system, with the specific areas of focus to be discussed and decided by the working group members.
Comprised of experts from nuclear regulatory bodies, license holders, technical support organisations, research institutions and relevant international organisations, the NEA Working Group on Human and Organisational Factors (WGHOF) shares good practices and lessons learnt in order to improve the understanding of the importance of human and organisational factors. Safety and organisational culture is one of the areas addressed by the WGHOF.
The NEA and the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) established the Country-Specific Safety Culture Forum (CSSCF) to examine how nuclear safety culture can be influenced by the national cultural context of a country operating nuclear facilities, and how operators and regulators perceive these effects in their day-to-day activities.
