Regulating nuclear safety through safety culture

Abstract

The primary aim of this paper is to demonstrate that safety culture can be a relevant additional concept for regulating at-risk installations. In that purpose, we developed a three-level model aiming at guiding a safety culture assessment. In that framework, “coherence” (i.e. the level of alignment between principles and practices), “cooperation” (i.e. the mutual understanding between sub-cultures) and “consistency” (i.e. the capacity to change and to improve) have been considered as core issues for a regulatory body assessment of safety culture. These important dimensions are illustrated through two study cases related to two safety culture assessments of nuclear installations.